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WITH THE 



History of Chicago. 



BY 

RUFUS BLANCHARD. 



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WHEATON: 
R. Blanchard & Company, 

1879. 



Entered, according to A- K -^ Congress, in the year 1879, 

BY R S hL iNCHARD, 

in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



. 3 



INTRODUCTION. 



A Spain took the lead in settling the New World. The 
West India Islands, Peru, Mexico and Florida were Spanish 
provinces before any other nation had obtained even a foothold 
in the great Western inheritance of Nature. But. these first 
Spanish adventurers were too richly rewarded with gold not to 
intoxicate the brains of the nation. Despising the slow process 
of agriculture as a means of wealth, they wasted their strength 
in searching for gold wherever they went, and left the fairest 
portions of America to be colonized by France and England. 
France pushed her settlements up the St. Lawrence river, and 
ultimately into the country of the great chain of lakes and the 
entire valley of the Mississippi, with a view of holding the great 
channels of American commerce, while the English, at random, 
set their foot upon the Atlantic coast, without any plans for the 
future. ) It is seldom that great national expectations are fulfilled, 
and the ultimate destiny of America is no exception to this 
almost universal rule. Year after year the English colonists 
toiled in contentment along the eastern fringe of the continent, 
hardly beyond the hearing of the waters that beat against their 
narrow foothold in the New World. What was beyond these 
confines they knew not, nor had they time to inquire, for other 
work was before them. Across the ocean they had unconsciously 
borne the elements of a great nation. These had to be planted 
on a new soil and cultivated into a vigorous growth. While this 
planting season was in progress, the French, with far-reaching 
ambition, were strengthening their positions in the interior by 
building forts and establishing friendly relations with the Indians. 
No rivalship between th^. two nations was manifested at 



4 Introduction. 

first, but ultimately the religion and State policy of France was 
destined to come into competition with these same elements in 
the workings of the English mind. The latter prevailed after 
a long and apparently even-matched warfare, and the hopes of 
France were dashed to the ground. The English flag now 
waved over lake, river, and coast, wherever beginnings had been 
made, but their triumph had but a transient tenure. A new 
idea seizes upon the minds of men, and a new flag springs into 
existence. The English in turn are driven from our soil, and 
only the Indians, its natural inheritors, left to contend against the 
Americans. A prolonged struggle ensued on their part for 
existence, and on ours for advancement. Many complex con- 
ditions were brought into the issue. The early French relations 
to the Indians ; their inter-marriages and consequent sympathy 
for them ; the fur trade and its medley of associations, evil and 
good ; the partially successful missionary efforts both of the 
French Roman Catholic Fathers and of the United Brethren, or 
Moravians. All these brought a charm of romance into the 
■ever open chasm between the pioneer soldiers and the tenacious 
Indians. Slowly and sadly the latter retreated forever from the 
blood-stained soil, and few of their offspring are left among the 
living of to-day. Neither their courage, nor their murderous 
revenge could save them, and what has been a loss to them (but 
a few in number), has been a gain to the millions who now own 
the soil. 

Never before in the history of the world has the ambition 
of man been stimulated to such an extent as here. The 
jurists, the schoolmasters, and the ministers of New England and 
Yirginia followed the host of pioneers to the new field where all 
the appliances of civilization were to be built and the timber 
taken from the stump. During this process the stream of wealth 
has more than kept pace with expectation, till we now find our 
selves equal in rank and influence with the older States of the 
Union. For this position we are partly indebted to recruits from 
all the enlightened nations of Europe. It is not too much to 
say that we are made up of the activity and enterprise of the 
world as it brimmed over its confines at home and found a 
broader field here for its action. 

"The West," "Western," "Western characteristics," 



Introduction. 5 

are significant expressions. They mean dash, spirit, elasticity, 
resolution, and hope. Nor is it strange that these are the prom- 
inent traits of a people whose star of destiny has so suddenly 
risen to the zenith ; of a people nurtured into confidence in 
themselves by an almost unremitting tide of advancement in 
everything whjch constitutes national grandeur, except the fin- 
ishing touches of art and science, which are yet to be perfected. 

While these conditions have grown upon us in our progress 
down the highways of time, we have laid upon ourselves heavy 
burdens by premature legislation, not unlike those of the erratic 
sallies of childhood. Wiser counsels must come to our rescue 
to make amends for these, just as the well-digested thoughts of 
maturity recast the images of youth. 

Breathing time has now come to view the ground over which 
we have traveled, doubly endeared to us, because we ourselves 
were the first to take possession of it, and because we fashioned 
its institutions after our own model. That our history rises in 
importance as we assume larger proportions in the body politic, 
is manifested by the eagerness with which every thing pertain- 
ing to the early records of the West is sought after, and by the 
increasing number of Historical Societies springing up through- 
out the country, for the preservation of these precious relics. 

The rival interests of nations, complicated with religious and 
social conditions, produce war, and the province of the historian 
is not circumscribed to the details of the battle-field. These are 
but the means by which the passions and sympathies of nations 
achieve their ends. Hence, history, without reference to issues 
and contingencies, is only a bundle of facts, packed into the 
leaves of a book too tightly for the wedge of inquiry to let light 
shine between them. If the historian has failed to introduce to 
his readers the motive power that lets loose the dogs of war, his 
book will be like the play of "Hamlet with Hamlet left out." 
That history has taken the first place in literature, is due to the 
exhaustless character of its subjects, among which may be found 
truths which foreshadow the future from the past, and leave a 
more abiding impression than the teachings of fiction. 

The Author. 



CHAPTER L 

Jaques Cartier explores the St. Lawrence River — Settlement 
of Quebec — Discovery of Lake Champlain — Expedition 
against the Iroquois — Dutch settlement at Albany — Discov- 
ery of Lake Huron — The Falls of St. Mary reached — The 
French take formal possession of the country — Discovery of 
the Mississippi River — The Pictured Rocks — Discovery of 
the Chicago Portage — Marquette winters at Chicago— The 
Indians'* affection for him — Religious services on the prai- 
ries — Death of Marquette. The removal of his remains to 
St. Ignace — His Journal — Late discovery of his bones. 

Far in the depths of a new continent, a flat heath of waving 
grasses is pierced by a small tranquil stream, from whose unrip- 
pled face the moon-beams had glittered for ages in silence. 

This is all that can be said of the history of Chicago, till the 
white man visited it, and learned from the Indians that it was a 
convenient portage from the interior to the lakes. 

When Alexander was weeping that there were no more worlds 
to conquer, with no overstrain of the imagination, we can see 
the Indian securely gliding his canoe over the Chicago river into 
Lake Michigan, with an omnipotent reliance upon his own skill 
and courage, to protect himself from the greatest conqueror on 
earth, and it is difficult to tell which would have been the most 
surprised, Alexander or the Indians, could both have been in- 
formed of each other. 

History begins with mythology, in the old world, — in the 
new, on an immaculate tablet, simple and positive. Here the 
white man has raised his altars and commenced making his 
record, and the traditions of the red man have vanished before 
him, but still some enduring monuments of his nomenclature 
remain. 

These unlettered lexicographers gave symbolic names to their 
rivers, lakes, islands and to themselves, and in their vocabulary 
they had the name Chicago, which, in the language of the 
Illinois tribes, meant an onion. This is all it meant in a posi- 



8 Settlement of Quebec, 

tive sense, and by this name the place where our city stands* 
has been known from a period ante-dating its history. * It i» 
highly probable that it was thus named because wild onions 
grew in great profusion there. That the name was a synonym of 
honor, is demonstrated from the fact that the Illinois tribes 
named one of their chiefs Chicago, and thus elevated above his 
peers, he was sent to France in 1725, and had the distinguished 
honor of being introduced to the Company of The Indies. f 

The discovery and exploration of the whole interior of the 
country, was the work of French zeal and enthusiasm. To 
propagate the faith was the first object, at least in theory, but not 
far behind it was ambition to annex new realms to the crown of 
France. In pursuit of these two objects, the exploits of their 
adventurers, soldiers and missionaries, have justly challenged the 
admiration of the world. Borne along by the tidal wave of 
glory, these men gathered force and strength as they penetrated 
into the country, and breathed the air of freedom which pervad- 
ed the limitless creation of prairie and forest under the regime 
of the red man. 

Even before the Spaniards under De Soto, had penetrated 
from Florida to the Mississippi river, which was from 1539 to 
1543, the French under Jaques Cartier, had sailed up the St. 
Lawrence as far as Quebec. This was in 1534. The delighted 
adventurers returned to France with the news of their discov- 
eries of the wedge-shaped river ninety miles wide at its mouth, 
graduating to the dimensions of a common river at Quebec. 
What was beyond was left to conjecture for the present, for 
France was then too much distracted with religious dissensions 
at home, to utilize her discoveries on the St. Lawrence, and it 
was not till 1608 that she made the attempt. At that time, Sam- 
uel de Champlain, who was justly called the father of New 
France, made a permanent settlement at Quebec. He was the 
man for the place : austere in religion, sapient in politics, and 
courageous in war. 

The deeds of the first settlers of all new countries are germ- 
cells of future destiny. Even the early Indian policy has had 
its influence, and it is not too much to say, may have had much 
to do with casting the lot of the Northwest ultimately, with the 
English colonies, instead of with the French, who were its first 
discoverers and owners. The tribes along the St. Lawrence, or 
Hochelega, as it was sometimes called, were friendly with the 
French, whom they called Ononthio. (our older brother.) In 

* Happily there is now (1878) a living witness (Gurdon S. Hubbard, Esq.,) well 
known for candor, who was versed in the Illinois language, whose testimony is 
the authority here given for the meaning of the word, and may be looked upon 
as conclusive. Schoolcraft and other authorities might also be cited, if more were 
required. 

\ Shea's Charlevoix. Vol. II, page 78. 



Settlement at Albany. # 

Champlain they beheld their champion who could lead them to 
victory against their ancient enemies, the Iroquois, or Five 
Nations, who inhabited the present State of New York. Their 
central seat of power was located on the banks of Onondaga 
lake, among the cluster of lakes which was then, and is now, 
the paradise of the region thereabouts. 

Without discussing the merits of the dispute between these 
traditionary enemies, Champlain consented to lead a war party 
of his allies, of the St. Lawrence, against the Iroquois. It was 
in 1609, the next year after the settlement of Quebec, that he, 
with a canoe fleet of noisy Indians, paddled his way up the 
river, then without a name, which connects the waters of Lake 
Champlain* with the St. Lawrence river. Following the West- 
ern Bank of the Lake nearly to the present site of Ticonderoga, 
at midnight they saw the enemy, who, like themselves, were on 
some adventure. The two parties held a parley and agreed to 
land and wait till daylight before commencing the fight. In ac- 
cordance with this truce, each band chose their positions like 
duelists on a field of honor. Champlain opened the battle by 

Eiercing two Iroquois chiefs through the body at a single shot of 
is rifle, and the brave but astonished Iroquois fled before the 
effective weapons of warfare, which had been so unexpectedly 
introduced among them. But the end was not yet. The same 
year Henry Hudson sailed up the river, which bears his name, 
to the present site of Albany, and built Ft. Orange. Around 
this nucleus of German power (ultimately English power, ) the 
Iroquois gathered with amicable intentions, all the more abiding 
from the fact that the French had assaulted them at first sight, 
and thus made them their enemies. 

This good fellowship was reciprocated. The Indians wanted 
guns, kettles and knives, and the Dutch wanted furs in exchange 
for them. In a few years they wanted more. As the aggres- 
sive spirit of the French on the St. Lawrence began to make itself 
manifest, the Dutch found their Iroquois allies a convenient bul- 
wark, behind which to take shelter from their Canadian foes, both 
French and Indian, who at an early day often threatened the 
Northern border with destructive forays; meantime Champlain's 
colony soon began to feel the weight of Iroquois vengeance, re- 
lieved only by treacherous intervals of peace. In 1615 Champlain 
pushed his explorations to the banks of Lake Huron, and flour- 
ishing missionary stations were established in the country of 
the Hurons on the Eastern shore of the lake, which still perpet- 
uates their memory. In 1641 two zealous missionaries, Jogues 
and Rambault reached the falls of St. Mary, and in 1658, two 
venturesome fur traders, one of whose names was De Groseilles, 
reached the Western extremity of Lake Superior and wintered 

* The lake took its name from him. 



10 First News of the Mississippi. 

.among the Sioux, the same people whose descendants over- 
whelmed the army of Gen. Custer in the Black Hills, during 
the summer of 1876. At that time these tribes numbered 
.40,000* and held the country far to the West — even beyond the 
Mississippi river. They told the French traders about the 
great river which flowed southwardly through the interior, which 
were the first direct tidings which came to them of this stream. 
The next spring the two traders returned to Canada with an 
escort of 250 Indians and a valuable cargo of furs. A great 
sensation was produced by this imposing delegation. The 
news they brought of the great river was particularly inspiring 
to the French, whose passion for water channels of communi- 
cation into the interior was overweening. An expedition to 
return with the Sioux to their distant lodges beyond the great 
lakes, was immediately set on foot ; all classes were eager to 
join it, the fur traders for peltries and the missionaries to open 
new fields for gospel cultivation. The former provided them- 
selves with trinkets for barter with the Indians, and the latter 
with baptismal basins wherewith to put the seal of Christianity 
upon their disciples, who were to be converted from heathenish 
darkness into the light of Christianity. Armed with these and 
other appliances, the hosts of the devil were to be attacked in 
the very heart of his dominion, to use the language of the 
Jesuit relations during those days of chivalric piety. And in 
truth, when these hardy old Soldiers of the Cross appropriated 
the watchwords of the battle field, as fitting expressions to sym- 
bolize the work before them, it cannot be denied that the meta- 
phor was not far-fetched, especially after Jogues, Lallemant, 
Brebeuf,Garreau, and Gamier, had fallen victims of Iroquois ven- 
geance. The expedition started from Montreal the next spring, 
numbering thirty young Frenchmen, to -whom were added 
Fathers Leonard Garreau and Gabriel Dreuilletes,f and the 
Sioux delegation who had accompanied the traders. The eyes 
of the ever watchful and jealous Iroquois were upon them, and 
they had but little more than lost sight of their starting place, 
when they were waylaid by these ubiquitous foes. Father Gar- 
rau and several others were killed on the spot, the other French- 

*Charlevoix, Carver, Pike. 

f This emenent missionary had been stationed for several years among the 
Abenaquis of Sagadehoc, (Maine). Returning from thence to Canada, by order 
of his superiors, he was soon commissioned to go to Boston on an embassy, to 
bring about a comity of interest, both religious and secular. Canada at that time, 
was oppressed by the burdens of impolitic legislation, such as the banishment of 
Huguenots and onerous restrictions on the fur trade, and her Statesmen beheld 
with amazement the rising power of the Massachusetts colony, and felt a strong 
desire to negotiate a treaty with the Bostonians, for the purpose of working in 
harmony together for the conversion of the Indians, and also to keep them under 
a wholesome restraint by a concert of action between the English and French. 
In response to this overture, the prudential Bostonians, under the counsels of such 
jnen as Winslow, Dudley, Bradford, and Eliot, declined the proposal. Every 



French Take Possession of the North- West. 11 

men saved themselves by flight, leaving their canoes and mer- 
chandise in the hands of the victors. No cause for a quarrel 
had yet had place between the Iroquois and Sioux, and the lat- 
ter were allowed to depart in peace tor their homes. It was not 
till 1665 that any further progress was made in Western explor- 
ation. At this time, Father Alouez reaching the Falls of St. 
Mary in September, coasted along the southern shore of Lake 
Superior to the great village of the Chippewas. Here he sum- 
moned a council of Indian nations, composed of delegations 
from all the tribes of the adjacent countries, among whom were 
representatives from the Illinois tribe, which is the first mention 
made of them. In Father Alouez, they beheld a champion of 
human rights, and to him they unbosomed their griefs by first 
informing him of their ancient grandeur, and then of their 
diminished numbers from hostile visitations of the Sioux on the 
West and the Iroquois from the East, who had extended their 
conquests over the prairies, even before the white man had come 
among them. Alouez addressed them with words of paternal 
care, offering them the Christian religion and promising them 
protection against the Iroquois. 

Soon after this, missions were established at Green Bay, St. 
Marys and LaPoint, but the next notable event which took place 
was the grand gathering at St. Marys. Nicholas Perrot was the 
moving spirit of this convention. Thither he summoned Chiefs 
from no less than fourteen tribes to help celebrate the ceremo- 
nials, for a great deed was to be executed. Possession was to 
be taken of the country. Fifteen Frenchmen were present, 
among whom were Alouez and Joliet. A large wooden cross 
was consecrated, and elevated like a liberty pole of modern 
days. This done, around it knelt the priests, who sang, chant- 
ed, and prayed with suitable impressment, and went through the 
forms of taking possession of the country along the upper lakes 
and " Southward to the sea," a description of an unknown 
quantity, for up to that time no explorer had ventured very far 
into the interior. It was well known, however, that a great river 
coursed Southwardly through the country, but whither did it 
lead ? The hopeful theory was, that it opened into waters lead- 
possible token of respect was shown their distinguished guest. But these consid- 
erate representatives of the New American Idea, based on religious toleration, 
determined not to dilute the force of it by complicity with the elements in Can- 
ada, which were carrying weights in the exciting race for National grandeur be- 
tween the two contestants. Moreover, the Iroquois had never raised the hatchet 
against Massachusetts, and if they had swept Canada with the fire brand and 
scalping knife^even as the sickel reaps the wheat field and the fire consumes the 
stubble, might it not be in the providence of God to punish them for their perse- 
cutions of the Huguenots? Therefore the disappointed Priest was dismissed with 
a refusal to grant his request, softened with courtly blandishments, but Withal, 
an air of independance, as much as to say : we are willing to trust to the provi- 
dence of God for our future destim\ and you must also do the same. 



12 Discovery of the Mississippi River. 

ing to China, for this pleasing illusion, which had been the in- 
centive to Columbus when he penetrated the secrets of the 
ocean, was still the golden dream of the Canadian adventurers. 
Pending these speculations, Father Marquette and Joliet ob- 
tained leave from Taylon, the Intendant of Canada, to start on 
an expedition for the purpose of bringing to light the mysteries 
of this river, the country it drained and whither it went. 

Joliet was born in Canada and was educated for a priest, but 
was evidently better fitted by nature for an explorer than for a 
father confessor. But Marquette had not mistaken his calling. 
With peculiar fitness and grace his sacerdotal robes depended 
from his shoulders, belted around his waist by the inevitable 
chord of his priestly order. The love of God and man, and the 
deep adoration of the blessed Virgin who was his patron Saint, 
were ever visible in his face, which was cast in a mould of benev- 
olence. The tender passions of his youth found vent in the 
pious devotions, which were his every-day routine, and which 
for nearly twenty years, had made him conspicuous among his 
Jesuit brethren in the vanguard of that army of pioneers. 
The two distinguished men started from St. Ignace, a small 
missionary station on the north shore of the Straits of Mack- 
anaw. Two birch bark canoes, five men, a bag of corn meal, 
a string of dried beef and a blanket apiece, constituted their 
outfit, except the all-important appliances for religious devotions, 
such as beads and crosses, so necessary to the success of the 
enterprise. Their route lay along the north shore of Lake 
Michigan and the west bank of Green Bay. Father Alouez 
and Dablon had established the mission of St. Francis Xavier 
here, four years previously, and welcomed the adventurers on 
their laudable enterprise, with that hearty unction which can 
only be appreciated by men who have missions to perform, big 
with future destiny. Resuming their journey, they passed 
through the waters of Lake Winnebago, and thence accompan- 
ied by Indian guides, continued up the Fox river to the carrying 
place across to the Wisconsin river. Into this stream they 
launched their canoes, and for the first time clipped their paddles 
into the tributary waters of the Mississippi. Down its current 
they passed under cedar-crested precipices of solid rock, 
through forest glooms and across long stretches of sandy prairie. 
No marks of human life were apparent along these then silent 
grandeurs r/hich are now the admiration of tourists in the pic- 
turesque State of Wisconsin. On the 17th of June they emerged 
from the prairie copse which fringed the banks ot the Wiscon- 
sin, entered the forest shades which stud the Mississippi, and 
soon found themselves on its broad surface of moving waters, 
"with a joy I cannot express" says the devout Marquette.* 

♦Marquette named it Conception Kiver, in honor of the day on which it was discovered. 



First Interview with the Indians, 13 

As they passed down its waters the scenery was changed. The 
banks were less precipitous than the bold headlands of the "Wis- 
consin, and the country looked more promising, as they obtained 
occasional views of it through the openings along its wooded 
margin. Herds of buffalo were seen grazing on the ample pas- 
turage of the prairies, which must have struck the beholders 
as a waste of nature's gifts. In the neighborhood of the Des 
Moines river, they discovered human foot prints and hesitated 
not to follow them. Leaving their canoes in charge of five men, 
Marquette and Joliet took the Indian path, and after two leagues 
travel, came in sight of their villages. The two adventurers 
shouted to attract attention and four chiefs advanced to meet 
them with friendly tokens. They were of the Illinois tribe and 
hailed the advent of the two Frenchmen with delight. They 
feasted them with roast buffalo, fish and sagamite (hominy), 
and even honored them with the proffer of roast dog. The dis- 
tinguished guests, however, declined this dainty repast, although 
they did not call in question the spirit of hospitality with which 
it was offered. After suitable prayers, benedictions and com- 

Sliments, the Frenchmen took their leave, continuing their course 
own the river. Just above Alton is a high bluff of solid rock. 
On its time-worn surface, some artistic Indian, had in time past, 
exhibited his accomplishments by painting a monstrosity in hu- 
man form.* Marquette was startled at the sight. But the de- 
parted spirit of the savage artist whose genius inspired it and im- 
mortalized his own memory did not come to his rescue. There- 
fore the pious Marquette was indignant at the eight of the 
impious device, and doubted not that the devil was its author. 
Fain would he have effaced the sacriligious picture, but it was 
beyond his reach. Painfully he ruminated on this evidence of 
demonology in the land, as the two bark canoes were borne along 
as if propelled by the forces of nature, till suddenly they found 
themselves in the breakers of the Missouri river, whose eddies 
whirled their light water craft like chaff in a miniature hurri- 
cane. This momentary danger diverted his thoughts from the 
unpleasant subject, and they proceeded along with extra cau- 
tion. They passed the site of the present city of St. Louis, slum- 
bering beneath the shades of a full-grown forest, with no pre- 
monition of her future destiny. The giddy heights of Grand 
Tower and the Ohio river were passed without meeting any 
more signs of life, but on the left bank below this river they 
again saw Indians. A friendly interview was secured by means 
of the calumet, and to their astonishment they found them 

*No historic authority can be quoted for this assumption, but the theory is 
plausible enough to warrant its belief in absence of contravening testimony. Por- 
tions of this picture were visible as late as 1850, and might have been till this day 
had not the stone on which it was painted been quarried out for building purposes. 



14 The Arkansas Reached, 

dressed in broad-cloth and armed with guns.* No tidings of the 
sea coast could be obtained from them, and the two bands of 
voyagers parted company with an interchange of courtesies. 
Below the Ohio the monotony of scenery is chilling. Here the 
massed floods from the Western slopes of the Alleghenies and 
the Eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains roll along through a 
low, spongy soil, and with a power mighty and unremitting con- 
tinue to wear away on one bank and replenish on the other, — 
on one side a primeval forest being undermined and falling by 
piecemeal into the river, while on the other a young nursery of 
cottonwood trees sprouting up, to occupy ground that but a few 
decades past was the bosom of the rolling deep, and a few cen- 
turies past a mature forest of giant trees. Through these glooms 
the adventurers passed down the river till the mouth of the 
Arkansas was reached. Here again they met Indians, savage as 
nature could make them. The hot-headed young men of the 
tribe hurled their war clubs at the new-comers, one of which 
flew over Marquette's head. The pious missionary prayed to 
the holy Virgin and presented the potent calumet. The old 
men, seeing the situation, call back and restrain the young at- 
tackers, and a friendly meeting is the result, for which Mar- 
quette, with his accustomed loyalty to the blessed Virgin, gives 
all the credit to her without reserving any for the calumet. From 
their new hosts they learned that the mouth of the Mississippi 
was but ten days' travel distant, but it was not deemed prudent 
to advance farther with the intense heat of July upon them, and 
the danger of being picked up by Spanish adventurers imminent. 
They had passed below the point where De Soto had discovered 
and crossed the Mississippi in 1541, which was one hundred and 
thirty-two years previous, but no trace of his work had remained, 
not even in tradition, f The object of their expedition had been 
fulfilled, which was to discover the great river and determine 
whether it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean. 
In the latter case the hopes of the past century would be real- 
ized, which was a Western passage to the land of the Grand 
Kahn. That the great river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico no 
doubt could now exist, but that the waters of the Missouri led to 
lakes or straits which opened into the Pacific, was still a pleas- 
ing illusion. 

The voyagers, with thankful hearts, now determined to return, 
and on the 17th of July, after an affectionate leave-taking of their 
conciliated but rather doubtful friends, turned their canoes up- 
stream, when came the tug of tugging, for 'twas no easy task to 

*They probably were a roving band from the far distant borders of civilization 
on the Atlantic coast. 

fSome late historians have stated that Spanish coats of mail, captured from De 
Soto, were found here by the French, but their authority is is not quoted. 



Passage Up the Illinois River. 15 

stem the current of the Mississippi. Patient toiling at the oar 
finally brought them to the mouth of the Illinois river, where 
the Kaskaskias volunteered to conduct the voyagers to Lake Mich- 
igan by a more convenient route than the one by which they had 
come, which was by the Illinois, the Desplaines and the Chicago 
rivers.* Marquette gladly availed himself of their services, 
especially as it would bring him to the acquaintance of new 
tribes to whom the blessed words of the Gospel had never been 
spoken. On the Illinois river, especially along the shores of 
Peoria lake, and in the vicinity of Starved Rock, near the present 
site of Utica, were the principal villages of the Illinois tribes. 
The squaws dug up the rich prairie soil with sharpened sticks, 
planted their corn and cultivated it with the same rude instru- 
ments. The yellow harvest was carefully stored in cachesf for 
the common use of the tribe, none of which was wasted in 
the manufacture of whisky or assigned to tax gatherers. Their 
government, or rather their absence of government, was simple. 
If one person committed an offence against another, prompt ven- 
geance was taken on the spot. All shared alike ia creature 
comforts, but yet an aristocracy existed among them quite as 
marked as can be found at the same place now. It was not 
based on wealth, for they had nothing which could represent it 
beyond a few glittering ornaments which were within the means 
of the humblest porcupine hunter; but it was based on some act 
of daring or wise or heroic counsel which had promoted the pub- 
lic weal. These qualifications gave their possessors the right to 
speak in their councils and challenged due homage from the 
whole tribe. By these qualifications in gradations ot political 
power and influence nice distinctions were made by common 
consent, and he who would transcend these distinctions would be 
ostracised unsparingly, with no asylum wherewith to hide his 
disgrace. 

To these high minded chiefs, Marquette offered the christian 
religion, and no opposition was made to it ; indeed they set 
their subordinates an example of patronage to it by manifesting 
a commendable interest in it, nor did they by implication or 
otherwise, show any signs of preference for their own God, 
the Great Spirit. Marquette was delighted at the prospect that 
a nation might be born in a day, especially when they listened 
to his religious tenets and elementary explanations of the plan 
of salvation, and politely invited him to return and set up the 

♦This is conceded to be the first record made of any allusion to the Chicago 
portage, although Alouez, Nicholet and Perrot have each been credited by some 
writers as the first to visit Chicago. But it is possible, and even probable, that the 
Illinois chiefs informed Alouez of the place at his great council at the Chippewa 
village on Lake Superior in 1665 ; yet no record is made of such information by 
either Shea or Packman. 

tThese were excavations in the ground, not unlike cellars, covered with earth. 



16 Discovery of Chicago. 

standard of the cross among them. Thus passed the hours of 
his sojourn among the flexible Illinois, and when the pious mis- 
sionary resumed his journey with Joliet and his company of five, 
a large delegation of his late Indian friends accompanied them 
to Chicago. Few people ever came to this place for the first 
time without an excited curiosity to see it, and it is only a rea- 
sonable presumption that these French adveuturers were eager 
to behold the face of the dear old lake, in whose sparkling 
waters they had for many years glided their light barks in its 
northern extremity, and especially to see the little iDlet stream 
called Chicago, to which the Indians attached so much impor- 
tance. 

'Twas in September. The emerald hues of the prairie had 
already been mottled with the mature tints of autumn. The 
summer haze had vanished and the stimulating breath of the 
familiar old lake greeted them cheerfully, as the party crossed 
the carrying place from the Desplaines to the South branch 
of the Chicago river. Into the little stream they launched their 
boats, and their wake sent tiny waves among the tall grasses 
^which bathed their roots in the water's edge on each side. Here 
the two bands parted with a hearty good-bye, the Indians re- 
turned to their lodges and the Frenchmen took their course down 
the western shore of the lake. It is in the economy of Provi- 
dence to hide the book of fate from all, else who could move in 
their accustomed spheres. Where is the fruitage of those seeds 
-which Marquette planted during his life-labors in the wilds of 
America, and where the haughty tribes whom the French hoped 
to elevate to their own standard by infusing their own spirit into 
their facile but keen senses ? 

The enthusiasm and dash of the French and their tawny al- 
lies have melted away before the silent power which began with- 
out high expectations on the stubborn coast of the Atlantic, and 
the Chicago of to-day is no inconsiderable monument of the force 
of this power. Its destiny, however, was yet a sealed book, and 
;SO it remained for a century from this time. 

Marquette and his party soon arrived at the Mission at Green 
Bay. His strength was exhausted, and he was obliged to remain 
here for the winter to rest, while Joliet should return to Canada 
and report their discoveries to Frontenac, the governor. Ample 
notes of travel had been carefully prepared and also an autograph 
map of the country through which they had passed, on which rivers 
and Indian villages had been laid down with a fair approximate to 
accuracy.* Marquette rested at the comfortable quarters of the 

*This map is still preserved in the college of St. Mary in Montreal. A fac 
simile of it has been published by Mr. Shea, of New York, and inserted in his 
book entitled, " Discovery of the Mississippi." It has also been inserted in the 
margin of Blanchard's Historical Map of the United States, published at Chicago 
in 1876, and a copy reduced in scale is herewith presented. 






* 



CTi 



3^3_L J-31 fNVO ^NOU^N 



Q 

o 




Q 

o 

< 

u 









Marquette Winters at Chicago. 17 

mission house at Green Bay the ensuing winter, and when spring 
came he was still too weak to return to preach the gospel to the 
Illinois tribes, according to his promise when he left them. He 
therefore deferred his departure till the heats of summer were over. 
On the 25th of October, feeling revived by the bracing influences 
of autumn, he, with two companions, Perre and Jacques, and a 
band of Indians, started on his mission to the Illinois. It took 
them a month to reach Chicago. Here again the strength of the 
missionary gave out and his companions built a log cabin for him 
on the South branch of the Chicago river, and nursed him with 
tender solicitude through the winter, and the Indians often 
brought him such luxuries as their limited means could supply 
to relieve his wants.* There were also some fur traders "at the 
portage," which meant Chicago, who had just established them- 
selves at this important point so lately made known to the Cana- 
dians. They often visited Marquette's humble cabin and di- 
vided their scanty supplies of eatables with the invalid mission- 
ary, f From items of his journal it appears that his Indian 
friends, who visited him with all their willingness to receive his 
religious instruction, had the bad taste to ask him for powder, to 
which request the dying missionary replied : " Powder I have 
not. We came to spread peace through the land, and I do not 
wish to see you at war with the Miamis.":): 

The spring floods, which broke up the ice on the 29th of March, 
were so high as to cover the ground where his cabin stood, and 
make the wretched hut untenable. They were therefore forced 
to seek their canoe as an asylum from the swollen waters, and in 
it they passed over to the Desplaines and down its current to the 
Illinois river. The last item on his journal bears date of April 
6th. On the 8th he arrived at the great village of the Illinois, 
which was situated near the present site of Utica. He was re- 
ceived as "an angel from Heaven," says the relation. Five 
hundred chiefs and old men seated themselves in a circle around 
the Father, and outside of these were fifteen hundred of the com- 
moner classes, and beyond these were the women and children. 
In short, the whole village had assembled on the green, leaving 
their empty houses behind without fear of burglars or faithless 
servants' misdemeanors during their absence. With deep pathos 
the wordg ot the Father, in pure Indian dialect, penetrated the 
hearts of his hearers and inspired them with a transient venera- 
tion for the Christian's God. These were his last services. His 

*Shea's Discovery of the Mississippi Valley, page 54. Packman's Discovery of 
the Great West, page 68. 

fShea, page 54. 

JThe Illinois and Miamies to the east of them had been enemies for many years, 
and remained so till La Salle, in 1682, with skillful diplomacy, negotiated a per- 
manent peace between them. See Tonty's Life of La Salle. 



18 Death of Marquette. 

sands of life had almost run out, and feeling a desire to reach 
Canada before he died, he made haste to take his leave. He had 
endeared himself to his Indian flock, proofs of which they gave 
by accompanying him in large numbers on his return as far as 
Chicago, and contending with each other for the honor of con- 
veying his baggage. From Chicago he had determined his route 
to Canada by the Eastern shore of Lake Illinois, as Lake Michi- 
gan was then called. The same two companions were with him 
who had conducted him from Green Bay to the Illinois villages. 
The love between these young men and their spiritual father was 
tender and sincere on both sides, and as they plied their oars 
along the still shores of the lake with unremitting strokes, the 
father instructed them how to bury him when death came, for he 
now felt certain that he could not live to reach Canada. Arriving 
at a place a little below Sleeping Bear Point, the father 
felt a strong desire to land, but his companions, wishing to make 
all possible haste on the way, tried to persuade him to keep on 
their course. At that moment a storm began to make a com- 
motion in the waters, and they landed and built a hut of bark for 
their dying master and carried him in their arms from the boat to 
it. While his strength yet held out he took the precaution to write 
down his own sins, or what he called such, since his last con- 
fession to his superior, for propitiation. Next he promised to re- 
member his two attendants in heaven ; and then, after asking 
their pardon for the trouble he had caused them, he begged them 
to lay down to rest by his side, promising to awaken them when 
the last agony came. In about two hours he called them to his 
side and soon died in transports of joy. 

Perre and Jacques buried him on the bank of the lake and 
erected a large wooden cross over his grave, and with deep de- 
jection left the spot where their beloved father had laid down to 
take his last rest, where twenty years of toiling through the 
wilderness had brought him. 

It was late in the Spring, on the 19th of May, that his death 
took place, and the news of the sad event came to the different 
tribes of the country not long after they had returned to their 
various homes from the usual winter's hunt. A universal tribute 
of respect was shown to his memory. The Ottawas, of Canada, 
did more than to express this in words. The next spring, 1676, 
as one of their hunting parties were returning from the vicinity 
of the grave, they dug up the remains and separated the bones 
f'om the decayed flesh, according to the Indian custom, and en- 
veloped them in a casket of birch bark. This done, they care- 
fully conveyed the precious rehcs to the nearest missionary sta- 
tion, which was at St. Ignace, opposite Michilimakinac. As they 
approached the place they were met by the priests at the head 
of a procession of the resident traders and Indians. With in> 



Maaquette*s Journal. 19 

pressive funeral services the bones were interred beneath the 
floor in the chapel. 

" Rev. Father : the Peace of Christ: Having been compelled to remain all 
summer at St. Francis on account of my ill-health, and having recovered in the 
month or September, I waited for the arrival of our people returning from below 
(i. e., Quebec), to know what I should do for my wintering. They brought me 
orders for my voyage to the Mission of the Conception among the Illinois. Hav- 
ing met Your Reverence's wishes touching copies of my journal on the Mississippi 
river, I set out with Pierre Porteret and Jacque , Oct. 25, 1674. In the after- 
noon the wind forced us to lay up for the night at the mouth of the river, where 
the Pottawatamies were assembled ; the head men not wishing any to go off to- 
wards the Illinois, for fear the young men would lay up furs with the goods they 
had brought from below, and after hunting beaver would resolve to go down in 
the spring, when they expect to have reason to fear the Sioux. 

" Oct. 26. — Passing to the village, we found only two cabins there, and they 
were starting to winter at La Gasparde ; we learned that five canoes of Pottawat- 
amies and four of Illinois had set out to go to the Kaskaskia. 

u 27. We were detained in the morning by rain ; in the afternoon we had fair 
weather and calm, and overtook at Sturgeon Bay, the Indians who preceded us. 

" 28. We reached the portage ; a canoe which was ahead prevented our killing 
any game ; we began our portage, and cabined for the night on the other side, 
where the bad weather gave us much trouble. Pieire did not come in till one- 
o'clock at night, having got lost on a road on which he had never before been. 
After rain and thunder, snow began to fall. 

" 29. Having been compelled to change our cabinage, we continued to carry 
the bundles. The portage is about a league long, and very inconvenient in some 
parts. The Illinois, assembling in our cabin in the evening, ask us not to leave 
them ; as we might need them, and they know the lake better than we do, we 
promised. 

" 30. The Illinois women finished our portage in the morning ; we are de- 
tained by the wind. No game. 

"31. We start with pretty fair weather, and stopped for the night at a little 
river. The road from Sturgeon Bay, by land, is a very difficult one ; we did not 
travel far on it, last fall, before we got into the woods. 

" Nov. 1. Having said holy mass, we halted at night at a river, from which a 
fine road leads to the Pottawatamies. Chachagwessiou, an Illinois, much es- 
teemed in his nation, partly because he concerns himself with trade, came in at 
night with a deer on his shoulder, of which he gave us part. 

" 2. Holy mass said, we travelled all day with fair weather. We killed two 
cats, which were almost clear fat. 

"3. As I was on land walking on the beautiful sand, the whole edge of the 
water was of herbs similar to those caught in nets at St. Ignace ; but coming to a 
river which I could not cross, our people put in to take me on board, but * r e 
could not get out again on account of the swell. All the other canoes went on 
except the one that came with us. 

"4. We are detained. There is apparently an island offshore, as the birds 
fly there in the evening. 

" 5» We had hard work to get out of the river. At noon we found the Indians 
in a river, where I undertook to instruct the Illinois, on occasion of a feast, which 
No-wasking we had just given to a wolfskin. 

**6. We made a good day's travel. As the Indians weie out hunting, they 
came on some footprints of men, which obliged us to stop next day. 

" 9. We landed at two o'clock, on account of the fine cabinage. We were de- 
tained here five days on account of the great agitation of the lake, though there 
was no wind ; then by the snow, which the sun and a wind from the lake melted 
next day. 

"15. After travelling sufficiently, we cabined in a beautiful spot, where we 
were detailed three days. Pierre mends an .Indian's fjun. Snow falls at night 
ana mens -aj a.*y 



20 Marquette's Journal. 

"20. We slept at the Bluffs, cabined poorly enough. The Indians remain be- 
hind, while we are detained by the wind two days and a half. Pierre, going into 
the woods, finds the prairie twenty leagues from the portage. He also passed by 
a beautiful canal, vaulted as it were, about as high as a man ; there was a foot of 
water in it. 

" 21. Having started about noon, we had hard enough work to make a river. 
The cold began from the east, and the ground was covered with a foot of snow, 
which remained constantly from that time. We were detained there three days, 
during which Pierre killed a deer, three wild geese and three turkeys, which were 
very good. The others passed on to the- prairies. An Indian having discovered 
some cabins came to tell us. Jacques went with him there the next day. Two 
hunters also came to see me. They were Maskoutens to the numbers of eight or 
nine cabins, who had separated from each other to be able to live. They travel 
all winter with hardships almost impossible for Frenchmen, by very difficult 
roads ; the land being full of streams, small lakes and marshes. They are very 
badly cabined and eat or fast according to the spot where they happen to be. 
Having been detained by the wind, we remarked that there were large sand- 
banks off the shore, on which the waves broke continually. There I felt some 
symptoms of a dysentery. 

" 27. We had hard enough work to get out of the river ; and having made 
about three leagues, we found the Indians, who had killed some buffalo, and also 
three Indians, who had eome from the village. We were detained there by a wind 
from the shore, immense waves that came from the lake, and the cold. 

" December 1. We went ahead of the Indians, so as to be able to say mass. 

" 3. Having said mass and embarked, we were compelled to make a point and 
land, on account of the fog. 

'•4. We started well to reach Portage River, which was frozen half a foot 
thick. There was more snow there than anywhere else; and also more tracks of 
animals and turkeys. The navigation of the lake from one portage to the other, 
is quite fine, there being no traverse to make, and landing being quite feasible all 
along, provided you do not obstinately persist in travelling in the breakers and 
high winds. The land along the shore is good for nothing, except on the prair- 
ies. You meet eight or ten pretty fine rivers. Deer hunting is pretty good as 
you get away from the Pottawatamies. 

"12. As they began to draw to get to the portage, the Illinois having left, 
the Pottawatamies arrived with much difficulty. We could not say mass on the 
feast of the Conception, on account of the bad weather and the cold. During 
our stay at the mouth of the river, Pierre and Jacques killed three buffalo and 
four deer; one of which ran quite a distance with his heart cut in two. They con- 
tented themselves with killing three or four turkeys of the many which were 
around our cabin, because they were almost dying of hunger. Jacques brought 
in a partridge he had killed, every way resembling those of France, except that 
it had like two. little wings of three or four feathers, a finger long, near the head, 
with which they cover the two sides of the neck, where there are no feathers. 

" 14. Being cabined near the portage, two leagues up the river, we resolved to 
winter there, on my inability to go further, being too much embarrassed, and my 
malady not permitting me to stand much fatigue. Several Illinois passed yester- 
day, going to carry their furs to Nawaskingwe. We gave them a buffalo and a 
deer that Jacques had killed the day before. I think I never saw Indians more 
greedy for French tobacco than these. They came and threw beaver skins at our 
feet to get a small piece ; but we returned them, giving them some pipes, be- 
cause we had not yet concluded whether we should go on. 

"15. Chachagwessiou and the other Illinois left us to go and find their peo- 
ple and give them the merchandise which they had brought, in order to get their 
furs, in which they act like traders and hardly give more than the French ; I in- 
structed them before their departure, deferring the holding a council till spring, 
when I should be at their village ; they gave us for a fathom of tobacco three fine 
buffalo robes, which have done us good service this winter. Being thus relieved, 
we said the mass of the Conception. Since the 14th, my disease has turned into 
a dysentery. 

** 30. Jacques arrived from the Illinois village, which was only six leagues 



Marquette $ Journal. 21 

from here, where they are starving. The cold and snow prevent their hunting. 
Some having informed la Toupine and the surgeon that we were here, and unable 
to leave their cabin, had so alarmed the Indians, believing that we would starve 
remaining here, that Jacques had great trouble in preventing fifteen young men 
from coming to carry all our affairs. 

iijan. 16, 1675. As soon as the two Frenchmen knew that my illness prevented 
my going to them, the surgeon came here.with an Indian, to bring us some whortle- 
berries and bread ; they are only eighteen leagues from here, in a beautiful hunting 
ground for buffalo and deer, and turkeys, which are excellent there. They had, too, 
laid up provisions while awaiting us, and had given the Indians to understand that 
the cabin belonged to the blackgown. And I may say that they said and did all 
that could be expected of them ; the surgeon having stopped here to attend to his 
duties, I sent Jacque with him to tell the Illinois, who were near there, that my 
illness prevented my going to see them, and that if it continued I should scarce- 
ly be able to go there in the spring. 

11 24. Jacque returned with a bag of corn and other refreshments that the 
French had given him for me ; he also brought the tongues and meat of two buf- 
falo that he and an Indian had killed near by ; but all the animals show the bad- 
ness of the season. 

"26. Three Illinois brought us from the head men, two bags of corn, some 
dried meat, squashes, and twelve beavers ; 1st, to make me a mat; 2d, to ask me 
for powder; 3d, to prevent our being hungry ; 4th, to have some few goods. I 
answered them : firstly, that I had come to instruct them, by speaking to them of 
the prayer, &c ; secondly, that I would not give them powder, as we were en- 
deavoring to diffuse peace on all sides, and I did not wish them to begin a war 
with the Miamis ; thirdly, that we were in no fear of starving ; fourthly, that I 
would encourage the French to carry them goods, and that they must satisfy those 
among them for the wampum taken from them, as soon as the surgeon started to 
come here. As they had come twenty leagues, to pay them for their trouble and 
what they brought me, I gave them an axe, two knives, three clasp knives, ten 
fathoms of wampum, and two double mirrors ; telling them I should endeavor to 
go to the village merely for a few days, if my illness continued. They told me 
to take courage, to stay and die in their country, and said that they had been 
told that I would remain long with them. 

"Feb. 9. Since we addressed ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, to 
whom we began a novena by a mass, at which Pierre and Jacque, who do all they 
can to relieve me, received, to ask my recovery of the Almighty, my dysentery has 
ceased ; there is only a weakness of the stomach left. I begin to feel much bet- 
ter, and to recover my strength. None of the Illinois who had ranged them- 
selves near us have been cabined for a month ; some took the road to the Potta- 
watamies, and some are still on the lake, waiting for the navigation to open. 
They carry letters to our Fathers at St. Francis. 

" 20. We had time to observe the tide which comes from the lake, rising 
and falling, although there appears no shelter on the lake. We saw the ice go 
against the wind. These tides made the water good or bad, because what comes 
from above flows from the prairies and small streams The deer, which are 
plentiful on the lake shore, are so lean that we had to leave some that we killed. 

"March 23. — We killed several partridges : only the male has the little wings 
at the neck, the female not having any. These partridgrs are pretty good, but do 
not come up to the French . 

" 30. The north wind having prevented the thaw till the 25th of March, it be- 
gan with a southerly wind. The next day game began to appear ; we killed 
thirty wild pigeons, which I found better than those below (Quebec), but smaller, 
both young and old. On the 28th, the ice broke and choked above us. On the 
29th the water was so high that we had barely time to uncabin in haste, put our 
things on trees, and try to find a place to sleep on some hillock, the water gain- 
ing on us all night ; but having frozen a little, and having fallen as we were near 
our luggage, the dyke burst and the ice went down, and as the waters are again 
ascending already, we are going to embark to continue our route 

" The Blessed Virgin Immaculate has taken such care pf us during our winter- 
tering, that we have wanted nothing in the way of provisions, having a large bag 



22 Discovery of His Bones. 

of corn still left, meat and grease ; we have too, lived most peacefully, my sick- 
ness not preventing me from saying mass every day. We were able to keep Lent 
only Fridays and Saturdays. 

"31. Having started yesterday, we made three leagues on the river, going up, 
without finding any portage. We dragged for half an arpent. Besides this out- 
let, the river has another, by which we must descend. Only the very high 
grounds escape inundation. That where we are has increased more than twelve 
feet. Here we began our portage more than eighteen months ago. Geese and 
duck pass constantly. We contented ourselves with seven. The ice still brought 
down, detain us here, as we do not know in what state the river is lower down. 

"April 1. As I do not yet know whether I shall remain this summer at the 
village or not, on account of my dysentery, we left there what we could dispense 
with, especially a bag of corn, while detained by a strong south wind. We hope 
to morrow to reach the spot where the French ace, fifteen leagues from here. 

" 6. The high winds and cold prevent us from proceeding. The two lakes by 
which we have passed, are full of bustards, geese, ducks, cranes, and other birds 
that we do not know. The rapids are pretty dangerous in some places. We have 
just met the surgeon, with an Indian, going up with a canoe-load of furs ; but the 
cold being too severe for men who have to drag their canoes through the water, 
he has just made a cache of his beaver, and goes back to the village with us to- 
morrow. If the French get robes from the country, they do not rob them, so 
great is the hardship they experience in getting them." 

(Copied from The Historical Magazine, contributed by Shea, who trans- 
lated it from the French.) 

The old chapel at St. Ignace stood guard over the remains of Marquette till 
1706, when it was burned by lhe Jesuits on their departure from this historic 
spot, and until the autumn of 1877 no steps were taken either to memo,rizo the 
grave of the missionary explorer or to recover his bones, at which time in the 
month of May, Pierre Grondau discovered the foundation walls of a small build- 
ing, the stones bearing the marks of fire. The location accorded with the des- 
cription of the spot marked in La Hontan's map, originally published in France 
in 1703, and republished in London in 1772, as the site of the house of the 
Jesuits. 

By direction of Father Jacker, village priest, further excavations were made the 
same year, and conclusive proofs of the identity of the spot as- the grave of Mar- 
quette were obtained. The spot where the altar of the Virgin had stood was 
found, and buried in front of it were wrought iron nails, a hinge, and charred- 
wood. These relics, and a large piece of birch bark, in a good state of preserva 
tion, were within the walls of a vault, which walls were of cedar still partially 
preserved. The bones were nearly all turned to dust, two only being found. 

The foregoing facts were obtained from a paper read before the Chicago His- 
torical Society, Oct. 16th, 1877, by Mr. Cecil Barnes, a resident of Chicago, who 
was an eye-witness, having assisted in the excavation. 



CHAPTER II. 

JPt. Catarauqui built at the Outlet of Lake Ontario — La Salle 
arrives in Canada — His Ambitious Plans — He builds a Ves- 
sel for Navigating the Lakes — It sails for Green Bay, and 
is sent back Laden with Furs — La Salle arrives at the mouth 
of the St. Joseph and builds a Fort — Goes to the Illinois 
Miner and commences Building a Vessel to Explore the Mis- 
sissippi to its Month — Hennepin starts to Explore the Upper 
Mississippi — His Captivity — Du Lhut among the Sioux — La 
Salle returns to Canada to raise Recruits — Bad News from 
Ft. Creve-Ccsur — Retribution — Iroquois Invasion of the Illi- 
nois Country — Indian Trading Policy — Desperate Exploit of 
Tonty — Council with the Western Tribes — La Salle's Plans 
Resumed — Success. 

The journey of Marquette and Joliet had outlined a work far 
beyond the comprehension of any one at that time, and to utilize 
it was too heavy an undertaking even for all the French forces in 
Canada, till ample preparations could be made, in the way of 
building forts to connect Quebec to the Illinois country. The 
French had nothing to fear from the Western tribes, but their 
communication with them was impossible unless the Iroquois 
could be propitiated ; for these tribes held the whole present 
State of New York, and not only did their canoes sweep Lake 
Ontario, but their war parties often scoured the country north of 
it* Frontenac, a man of distinguished ability, was then Gover- 

* In 1649, an unusually fearful Iroquois invasion was visited upon the Huron 
tribes, who were allies of the French, and among whom successful missions had 
been established. These were destroyed, and two heroic missionaries, Brebeuf 
and Lalemant, refusing to leave their charge in the hour of danger, fell before the 
merciless invaders. The following account of their death is copied from Park- 
man's Jesuits in America : 

'* On the afternoon of the sixteenth — the day when the two priests were captured 
— Brebeuf was led apart, and bound to a stake. He seemed more concerned for 
his captive converts than for himself, and addressed them in a loud voice, exhort- 
ing them to suffer patiently, and promising Heaven as their reward. The Iro- 
quois, incensed, scorched him from head to foot, to silence him ; whereupon, in 
the tone of a master, he threatened them with everlasting flames, for persecuting 
the worshipers of God. As he continued to speak, with voice and countenance 
unchanged, they cut away his lower lip and thrust a red-hot iron down his throat. 



24 La Salle Arrives in Canada. 

nor of Canada, and, with a view to Western progress, in 1673, 
had convened a council with the Iroquois, at the outlet of Lake 
Ontario, to obtain permission of them to build a fort. In this 
he was successful, and the fort was constructed at once, and 
named Ft. Catarauqui. This was a great point gained by the 
French, for it not only served as a barrier against the recurrence 
of an Iroquois invasion of Canada, but it brought French goods 
into a more direct competition with the Dutch trade at Albany, 
by the facilities which the fort offered as a trading post. 

Conspicuous among the adventurous explorers of Canada at that 
time, was Robert Cavelier, known in history by the name of La 
Salle. He was the son of a wealthy merchant living at Rouen, 
France, from which place he came to Canada in the spring of 
1.666. His seven years' life in American wilds previous to Mar- 
quette's discovery of the Mississippi river, was largely spent in 
exploring the interior. One of his expeditions was made across the 
Iroquois country to the Ohio river, and down its channel as far as 
the falls at Louisville. As might be supposed, the actual discov- 
ery of the Mississippi stimulated La Salle's ambition to higher 
aims than ever. That it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico and 
not into the Pacific Ocean, was now his settled belief, and, peer- 
ing into the future, he foresaw with a penetrating eye the yet 
unmeasured volume of trade which would one day pour through 
the deltas of the Mississippi to the sea. There was enchantment 
in the thought that he should be the instrument by which this 
would be thrown into the lap of France, and to accomplish this 

He still held his tall form erect and defiant, with no sign or sound of pain ; and 
they tried another means to overcome him. They led out Lalemant, that Brebeuf 
might see him tortured. They had tied strips of bark, smeared with pitch, about 
his naked body. When he saw the condition of his Superior, he could not hide 
his agitation, and called out to him, with a broken voice, in the words of Saint 
Paul, ' We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.' Then he 
threw himself at Brebeuf 's feet ; upon which the Iroquois seized him, made him 
fast to a stake, and set fire to the bark that enveloped him. As the flame rose, he 
threw his arms upward, with a shriek of supplication to Heaven. Next they hung 
around Brebeuf 's neck a collar made of hatchets heated red hot ; but the indom- 
itable priest stood like a rock. A Huron in the crowd, who had been a convert of 
the mission, but was now an Iroquois by adoption, called out, with the malice of 
a renegade, to pour hot water on their heads, since they had poured so much cold 
water on those of others. The kettle was accordingly slung, and the water boiled 
and poured slowly on the heads of the two missionaries. ' We baptize you,' they 
cried, ' that you may be happy in Heaven ; for nobody can be saved without a 
good baptism.' Brebeuf would not flinch ; and, in a rage, they cut strips of flesh 
from his limbs, and devoured them before his eyes. Other renegade Hurons call- 
ed out to him, 'You told us that the more one suffers on earth, the happier he is 
in Heaven. We wish to make you happy ; we torment you because we love you ; 
and you ought to thank us for it.' After a succession of other revolting tortures, 
they scalped him ; when, seeing him nearly dead, they laid open his breast, and 
came in a crowd to drink the blood of so valiant an enemy, thinking to imbibe 
with it some portion of his courage. A chief then tore out his heart, and devour- 
ed it." 



First Vessel on the Lakes. 25 

end became the idol of his imagination till death. Intent npon 
the fulfillment of these designs, he sailed for France in the autumn 
of 1674, the next year after the discovery of the Mississippi. 

Frontenac and La Salle were on the most friendly terms, for 
they were no rivals. La Salie did not envy him as governor, 
because he aimed at higher fame than could come from the vice- 
roy's chair of a province. Nor did Frontenac envy La Salle as 
an explorer, especially as he felt an assurance that he should be 
a sharer in any honors growing out of his discoveries. He there- 
fore gave La Salle letters of the highest commendation to the 
court of France, which insured him a favorable hearing. Louis 
XIV., the king, gave him the order of knighthood and granted 
him a seigniory of land adjacent to Ft. Catarauqui. Returning 
to Canada, he rebuilt the fort with substantial walls of stone, 
within two years, and changed its name to Frontenac. The next 
step was to build a fort at the mouth of the Niagara river. By 
dint of great exertions and profuse presents to the Seneca tribe 
of the Iroquois Nation, he obtained reluctant permission to do 
this, and also to build a vessel above the falls of Niagara, with 
which to navigate the lakes. The fort having been finished, the 
vessel was next completed, and launched early in the spring of 
1679. It was named the Griffin, in honor of the family arms oi 
Frontenac. The immediate design of this vessel was to convey 
materials wherewith to build another vessel on the Illinois river, 
with which to navigate the Mississippi to its mouth. This mis- 
sion executed, the exploring party were to set sail for France, 
after taking formal possession of the Mississippi valley in the 
name of the French king. 

Beyond these designs was another less practical one, which 
contemplated a raid on the Spanish province of Mexico, at the 
head of ten thousand Indians, for the purpose of reducing it to a 
French province. This latter madcap scheme of La Salle's must 
have had its origin in the inspirations of a forest life, which have 
often turned the brain of otherwise able-minded men into Utopi- 
an channels. 

Soon as the vessel was finished it was launched, and anchored 
in the stream as a measure of safety lest the Senecas might, in a 
fit of jealousy, set fire to it. On the 7th of August, everything 
was made ready. The sailors were at their posts, some at the 
capstan drawing her anchor, and others hoisting her canvas to the 
first breezes that ever wafted a vessel over Lake Erie. A can- 
non was fired on the occasion, and the Griffin gracefully moved 
away from the shore, tacking to the larboard and starboard alter- 
nately, in order to make headway up the Niagara river, to the 
astonishment of the Indians, who beheld the strange spectacle 
for the first time. Her crew numbered about thirty, all told, 



&6 Arrival at the St. Joseph. 

among whom were Fathers Gabriel Membre and Hennepin, 
Tonty having been sent in advance to Miehilimackinac 
The Griffin sailed up Lake Erie, up the Detroit river, and across 
Lake Huron to Michilimaokinac. Stopping here a short time, 
she became the marvel of the Indians, who called her the mon- 
ster canoe. Next she proceeded to Green Bay, landing at an 
island there, where her cargo was unloaded. This consisted of 
trinkets for Indian traffic in part, but its most valuable portion 
was the materials wherewith to build another vessel on the Illi- 
nois river, such as chains, bolts, cables, and a blacksmith's forge. 
The Griffin was loaded with furs and sent back from whence she 
came, and her unloaded freight packed into small boats, to be 
transported from thence to the Illinois river. For some cause, 
not now known, La Salle had determined to make the trip by the 
way of the St. Joseph river, crossing the portage from its elbow 
near the present site of South Bend, to the head-waters of the 
Kankakee river, thence down stream till deep water on the Illi- 
nois was reached. With this intent, he started with seventeen 
men, with his small boats, along the western shore of Lake 
Michigan. The southern extremity of the lake had to be doub- 
led, and its eastern shore followed to the point of destination, 
the mouth of the St. Joseph. Tonty had been ordered to meet 
him at this place, with twenty men, from Michilimackinac. 
While waiting for him, La Salle set his men at work to build a 
palisaded fort, and, for the first time, the sound of the axe and 
saw rung along those cone-shaped sand-hills which now teem 
with an annual burden of peaches for the Chicago market. Is it 
to be wondered that La Salle should be more favorably impress 
ed with the large and beautiful river of St. Joseph than the in 
significant stream at Chicago, whose mouth was almost closed 
with a sand-bar ? 

Tonty arrived at the appointed spot at the end of twenty days, 
when the order was given to advance. Two men were left in 
the lonesome fort, and the flotilla paddled up the tranquil waters 
of the St. Joseph to the carrying place, where the freight was 
unloaded, and with the boats, carried across the dividing ridge, 
by a devious path, to the head-waters of the Kankakee. Into 
this stream the boats were launched, and loaded again, for final 
transportation. 'Twas a strange sight, to behold a miniature 
army of resolute Frenchmen threading their course along the 
sluggish little stream, almost overlapped with water bushes. 
This sea of mud is seldom entered, even now, except on wild 
duck excursions ; and many an effeminate sportsman, who has 
been tempted from his luxurious parlors in the present Chicago, 
to invade these bottomless swamps on such errands, has returned 
with the ague. As La Salle passed along, the stream widened 



Arrival in the Illinois Country. 27 

and the surroundings improved, till he reached the great village 
of the Illinois, on the river which still bears their name. It was 
on New Year's day in 1680. All was silent, for the inhabitants 
— braves, squaws, pappooses, and dogs — had gone on their win- 
ter's hunt. La Salle was in need of provisions, and, impelled 
by necessity, took from their storehouses corn enough to feed 
his men, and kept on his course down the river. Arriving at the 
present site of Peoria, he met the returning Indians. A council 
was convened at once, in which La Salle made known the nature 
of his mission. First, he made satisfactory apologies for having 
taken their corn, and paid them its value in goods. His next 
business was to get leave to build a fort and also a vessel for the 
navigation of the Mississippi. This liberty was easily obtained 
from the flexible Illinois tribes, whose jealousy had never been 
aroused against the French. Work on both was commenced. 
The palisaded fort was soon finished. The keel of the vessel 
was laid, and its ribs placed in position, when murmurs of discon- 
tent arose among the ship-carpenters, and a few of them desert- 
ed, in consequence of not being paid promptly. 

It is no marvel that these men should prefer the ease and im- 
munity from care, which the amenities of savage life offered them, 
rather than the service of the austere and exacting La Salle, with, 
to them, but a barren hope of pay, especially as they did not 
share his hopeful ambition. That La Salle did not make proper 
allowance for such contingencies, was one of the weak points 
that undermined his best-laid plans, and robbed him of that suc- 
cess, which his broad-gauge intellect and zeal deserved. These 
first desertions were but a foretaste of that bitter cup, which his 
overweening dash at the impracticable was preparing for him. We 
have such men among us now, and perhaps one in a thousand of 
them, by some eccentric turn of the wheel of fortune, achieves 
success, which example, like a contagion, seizes upon a thousand 
more, to lastly be victimized. La Salle, whose nature forbade 

*Tonty, who was an eye witness to the whole, in his Life of La Salle, page 35, 
uses the following language on the desertion of the men : 

"Most of our men being discouraged by a long and tedious voyage, the end 
whereof they could not see, and weary of a wandering life in forests and deserts, 
where they had no other company but brutes and savages, without any guide, car- 
riage, and provisions, could not forbear murmuring against the au.hor of so tire- 
some and perilous an enterprise. M. La Salle, whose penetration was extraordin- 
ary, discovered immediately their dissatisfaction, and tried all possible means to 
prevent the consequences thereof. The glory of the enterprise, the example of 
the Spaniards, the hopes of a great booty, and everything else that may engage 
men, we made use of to encourage them and inspire them with better sentiments ; 
but these exhortations, like oil poured upon fire, served only to increase their dis- 
satisfaction. What said they ? • Must we always be slaves to his caprices, and be 
continually bubbled by his visions and foolish expectations ? and must the fatigues 
we have hitheito undergone be used as an argument to oblige us to go through 
more perils, to gratify the ambition or folly of a merciless man ?' " 



28 Hennepin Sent to Explore the Upper Mississippi. 

him to look on but one side of a question, and that the front 
side, supplied the places of the deserters, by his wonderful faculty 
of bringing an extra stock of energy into service, and by these 
means continued work on the vessel. 

Of the four priests who comprised the party of adven- 
turers, Hennepin was the least in favor. Ever prone to 
intrude his advice unasked, or to attribute unlucky incidents 
to a neglect of his counsel, he became a bore, all the less 
endurable, because his sacred robes protected him from cen- 
sure.* He was ever pluming himself, on his self-sacrificing 
spirit and willingness to undertake any enterprise, however 
dangerous, providing it would advance the Christian cause among 
the heathen, and that his highest ambition was to die in such a 
service. There was no lack of priests in the fort, and La Salle 
conceived the thought of taking Hennepin at his word, by send- 
ing him on an expedition to explore the head-waters of the Mis- 
sissippi. The astonished priest accepted the mission, but with a 
bad grace, and started in an open canoe with two attendants, on 
the last day of February, his brother priests uniting with La 
Salle in lavishing upon him words of consolation, as he left the fort 
to push his way among new and unheard-of tribes of savages, 
in an equally unknown land. And here we will leave La Salle, 
to follow the fortunes of Hennepin and his two companions, 
Accau and Du Gray. They were provided with an ample store 
of goods, to be used as presents to the different tribes they might 
encounter on their way ; besides which, were provisions, guns 
and ammunition. They glided down the Illinois river to its con- 
fluence with the Mississippi, and plied their oars up the stream, 
in obedience to orders. Game was abundant, and they fared 
well till the 12th of April, when, stopping on shore to roast a 
wild turkey for dinner, they beheld with consternation a war- 
party of 120 naked savages, breaking the solemn silence of the 
uninhabited place, with the noisy whooping of Indians on the 
war-path. The little party were immediately taken captive, de- 
spite the ceremonials of the calumet, or the inevitable tobacco 
accompanying it. 

They were a band of Sioux, intending to make war on the 
Miamis, in revenge for some old scores ; but the raiders were 
turned from their purpose, when Hennepin informed them, by 
signs, that the Miamis were away from home on a hunting ex- 
cursion. The next business to be settled was the fate of the 
three French captives. As to the question whether they should 
be killed, or treated with hospitality, there was at first, a division 
of opinion. Had the chivalrous La Salle been among the French 

* This analysis of his character is drawn from Parkman, who has exposed the 
frailties of Hennepin unsparingly. 



Captivity of Hennepin. 29 

party, his impressive dignity would have insured the utmost cour- 
tesy' toward themselves; but Hennepin was overcome with ter- 
ror, and the haughty Sioux could have but little respect for him. 
After a hasty council, however, they concluded to spare the lives 
of the captives, in order to encourage more Frenchmen to come 
among them, with the much-coveted trinkets, of which it was 
known they had an abundance. But this decision was not made 
known to the captives. On the contra/y, Hennepin was inform- 
ed by signs, amid a din of wailings, that his head was to be split 
with a war-club. This unwelcome news drew forth from him 
some presents, which at least had the effect to postpone the exe- 
cution of such a cruel purpose. 

The Indians now concluded to return to their home among the 
little Jakes at the upper Mississippi, and take the captives with 
them ; but they kept up the practice of their villainous tricks to 
extort goods from Hennepin, till nearly his whole store was ex- 
hausted. Pending these griefs, Hennepin sought consolation in 
reading his morning devotion from his breviary ; but this solace 
was a fresh source of danger, for the devotional murmurings of 
his voice were interpreted by the Indians, as a piece of sorcery, 
which might bring retribution upon themselves. Hennepin, ob- 
serving this, chanted the words in a clear, musical voice, which 
amused instead of terrified his hearers, and satisfied his own 
conscience. The party arriving at the vicinity of St. Paul, the 
boats were concealed in a thicket, and they started on foot across 
the country to their respective lodges. 

'Twas early in May, but remnants of ice still clung around the 
shaded margins of river, lake and marsh, imparting an icy chill 
to the waters through which the travelers passed, sometimes 
shallow, and sometimes deep enough to swim them. Between 
these low savannas, long stretches of high prairie had to be tra- 
versed, over which the naked-limbed Indian skimmed along with 
nimble step, but the poor priest, shackled by his long robes, 
lagged behind in spite of his utmost exertion. Seeing this, the 
Indians, always fertile in expedients, took hold of his hands, one 
on each side, and pulled him along at a rapid pace, while they 
set fire to the dry prairie grass behind him, to act as an extra 
incentive to speed. 

Five days of this exhaustive travel brought them to the Indian 
town in the region of Mille Lac. Here the captives were adopt- 
ed, each by a different chief, and consequently separated from 
each other. Hennepin was taken by Aquipaguetin, the head 
chief of the party and his most persistent persecuter on the way. 
His home was on an island in Lake Mille Lac, where five wives 
and a due proportion of children paid savage courtesies to their 
lord and master. Hennepin was well received. A sweating 



30 Life Among the Sioux, 

bath was given him, and his mutilated feet rubbed with wildcat's 
oil, under an impression that, by this process, the agility of that 
animal might be measurably imparted to the patient. He was 
fed on a short allowance of wild rice and dried whortleberries, 
of which the Indians had laid in no over-stock for winter's use ; 
but all shared alike, except sometimes a little preference shown 
by the squaws for their own children. 

Ouasicoudie was the highest in rank, as chief of the Sioux of 
this region, and he had no sooner learned of the arrival of the 
three French captives, and the dastardly tricks by which Henne- 
pin had been robbed, than he berated Aquipaguetin severely, for 
he had been the instigator of those villainous devices, which the 
high-minded Sioux discarded as a nation. 

As the weary days wore along, the supply of food diminished 
and hunger began to warn these improvident children of nature, 
that something must be done to appease it. For this purpose, a 
buffalo hunt was determined on in early summer, and Hennepin 
was promised that he might accompany them. This was good 
news to him, as it gave promise of a plentiful supply of food ; 
but inasmuch as he was to accompany the grim father of his 
adoption, Aquipaguetin, he feared that fresh abuses were in store 
for him, when away from the influences of Ouasicoudie. To 
avert this new danger, the reverend father told the Indians, that 
a party of Frenchmen were to meet him, at the mouth of the Wis- 
consin river, in the summer, with a stock of goods.* 

The time came for starting on the proposed buffalo hunt, and 
the 250 braves, with their squaws and children, and boats enough 
to carry them were promptly on the spot. Accau and Du Gay 
had a boat of their own, a present from the Indians, into whose 
good graces they had grown since their captivity. But poor 
Hennepin was no favorite. Boat after boat passed the forsaken 
priest, as he stood on the river bank begging a passage. Even 
the two Frenchmen refused to take him in ; and but for the con- 
descension of one of the crew in the rear, the missionary would 
have been left alone, in those distant and savage realms of the 
wilderness. Arriving at the mouth of Rum river, they all en- 
camped on the bank of the Mississippi. Yery short rations of 
dried buffalo meat was their fare, except what unripe berries 
could be gleaned from the uncultivated face of nature, which was 

* Hennepin affirms that La Salle had promised this to him when he left Ft. 
Creve-Cceur ; but the truth of this assertion may well be questioned, especially 
since Hennepin's veracity has been tarnished by the mendacious book of travels 
which he published on his return to France. In this book he claimed to have 
explored the Mississippi to its mouth. It had a large sale, and won for him a rep- 
etition which was as short-lived as his motive in writing it was contemptible, inas- 
much as his aim was to rob the true explorers of the lower Mississippi of the hon- 
e's due to them alone. 



Arrival of Du Lhut, 31 

spread out in appalling amplitude around them. Hennepin, as 
might be supposed, was disgusted with Indian life, and so was 
Du Gay. The two, therefore, obtained permission of Ouasi- 
coudie, who had always been their friend, to leave the encamp- 
ment, and go and meet the expected Frenchmen at the mouth of 
the Wisconsin river. Meantime, Accau's highest ambition was 
to remain with his savage associates.* 

Equipped with a birchen canoe, a knife, a gun, and an earthen 
pot of Sioux manufacture, in which to boil meat, the Father and 
Da Gray, his companion, started down the river. They arrived 
at the falls on St. Anthony's day, and Hennepin, in honor of the 
Saint, gave them his name, which they still retain. Thence they 
made their way down the river by slow stages, for they were 
obliged to resort, in part, to turtles and fish for subsistence, inas- 
much as their stock of ammunition was getting short ; and to 
capture these in sufficient quantities to appease hunger caused 
aauch detention. While the travelers were urging their way 
toward the Wisconsin — of course, with the intention of ultimately 
reaching Canada — they were disagreeably surprised to see Aqui- 
paguetin, with ten warriors, coming down the river. Hennepin 
feared the worst, but no harm was offered him. The chief was 
on his way to meet the French at the mouth of the Wisconsin, 
for purposes of traffic, and, after a brief salutation, swept past 
the Frenchmen. In three days he returned, having found nc 
French traders there. Approaching Hennepin, he gave him a 
severe scolding, and passed along up the river, to the great relief 
of the terrified Father. The travelers had now but ten charges 
of powder left, which was too small a supply to last them on so 
long a trip as the route to Canada. In this emergency, they 
determined to again join the Sioux hunters, who were now en- 
camped on the Chippewa river, an affluent of Lake Pepin, not 
far distant. They soon found them, and, happily for the wan- 
derers, in a good humor, for they had been unusually successful 
in killing buffalo. 

Exciting news was soon brought to their encampment by two 
old squaws. A war party of Sioux had met five white men 
coming into their country from Lake Superior, by the way of the 
St. Croix river. Much curiosity was manifested by Hennepin, to 
know who^ the white explorers were. The hunt was over, and 
as the Indians were to return at once, their curiosity was soon to 
be gratified, for Hennepin and his companion were to return with 
them. On arriving at the present site of St. Paul, the expected 
visitors were met, and they proved to be no other than the 

* Since Accau had declared his resolution to remain with the Sioux, Du Gay had 
made ample apologies to Hennepin for having refused him a place in his boat on 
staiting from Mille Lac, and they were now restored to good fellowship again. 



32 La Salle Starts for Canada. 

famous explorer, Daniel G-reysolon Du Lhut, with four compan- 
ions. This master-spirit of the forest had been two years among 
the far-off lodges of the Sioux, and other tribes to the north, ex- 
ploring, like La Salle, under the patronage of Frontenac. 

Having learned that three white men were in the country, he 
came to meet them, with a determination to drive them away, if 
they were of any other nationality but French. The command- 
ing presence of Du Lhut, not surpassed even by La Salle, won 
the utmost respect from the Sioux at once. The whole party 
returned north to the region of Mille Lac, and a grand feast of 
honor was spread for the distinguished guests. 

As autumn approached, the Frenchmen made preparations to 
return to Canada, to which the Sioux interposed no objections, 
assured, as they were, by Du Lhut, that they would soon return 
with goods for traffic. 

Accau, by this time sated with the society of his late associates, 
was willing to join Du Lhut, and the whole party, eight in all, 
started for Canada, by the way of the Wisconsin river. 

The travels of DuLhut and the captivity of Hennepin had made 
known to the French the general features of the upper Missis- 
sippi, bat the outlet of this stream was still a mystery. It had 
been one hundred and thirty-seven years since the miserable 
remnant of De Soto's Spanish adventurers had fled down its cur- 
rent in hot haste, closely pursued by the exasperated natives of 
the country, whom they had plundered, and little or nothing had 
been given to the world respecting its physical aspect. La Salle 
was the destined one to bring to light this majestic chasm, which 
opened through the heart of a continent. 

Let us now return to Ft. Creve-Cceur, and follow the invinci- 
ble explorer through the thorny path which still intervened be- 
tween him and his destination. Even before Hennepin had 
started from Ft. Creve-Cceur, he had felt the positive necessity of a 
fresh supply of men to fill the places of the deserters ; for his 
force was now too small to even continue work on the vessel. 
The fort was now finished, and its name, Creve-Cceur ("broken 
heart"), sufficiently symbolized the failure of all his plans thus 
far, but was no index to his unconquerable resolution. Spring 
was now opening, with its discomforture of mud and swollen 
streams ; but, regardless of these obstacles, he formed the reso- 
lution to start for Canada, to obtain the necessary recruits. Hen- 
nepin had no sooner left the fort than La Salle made preparations 
for his departure. On the 2d of March everything was in readi- 
ness. Five companions were selected to accompany him, one of 
whom was Nika, a faithful Indian servant, whose skill as a hunter 
and knowledge of woodcraft was indispensable to the safety of 
the party. 



The Wilderness March. 33 

They commenced their journey in a canoe, and packing into it 
a slender outfit of blankets, guns, and the inevitable bag of hom- 
iny, they tugged up the Illinois river till the mouth of the Kan- 
kakee was reached. Up this stream they plied their oars till 
they came about to the present site of Joliet. Here the ice of 
winter was still unbroken, and the canoe had to be abandoned. 
Blankets, guns and other luggage, were now packed on their 
shoulders, and they took up their march through the oozy savan- 
nas, which intervened between them and Ft. Miamis, at the 
mouth of the St. Joseph river, which was the first point to be 
reached. Taking their course to the northeast, according to 
their best knowledge of locality, after a few days of toilsome 
tra. J, and as many nights of cold comfort on the damp ground, 
they were gladdened by the sight of Lake Michigan. The point 
at which they struck it was but a few miles south of Chicago, 
near the mouth of the Calumet.* Following the shore of the 
lake, around its southern extremity, on the 24th they arrived at 
the fort, where its lonesome garrison of two men still stood sen- 
tinels of the forest, like hermits, cut off from all communication 
with the world. 

When La Salle had sent his vessel back down the lakes from 
Green Bay, loaded with furs, he gave orders to have her return 
to Ft. Miamis for a second trip ; and, notwithstanding no tidings 
had reached him of the vessel since her departure, he had not 
entirely relinquished all hopes that she had arrived at this place, 
in obedience to his orders, and that he might yet recruit his ex- 
hausted finances from the sale of her cargo ; but these hopes 
were not realized — neither the vessel nor any news of her was 
here.f The Griffin never had been heard from since she left 
Green Bay ; no doubt could now be entertained, that she had 
been lost during the heavy gales that prevailed soon after she 
set sail on the great wilderness of waves that the lakes then were, 
without a lighthouse or a chart, to guide the pioneer bark along 
the unknown shore. Without taking time to rest, La Salle, with 
his party, again plunged into the leafless forests, striking their 
course toward the western extremity of Lake Erie. It was an 
unknown country. With no other guide but a pocket compass, 
the travelers pushed through thickets and swamps, weighted 
down with camping equipments and guns. After a few days' 
travel, they found themselves pursued by a band of Indians sup- 
posed to be Iroquois. For several days their footsteps were 
dogged, and all attempts to elude their pursuit were unavailing. 

* Parkman's Discovery of the Great West, p. 178. 

f In obedience to orders from La Salle, the two men at the fort had made a tour 
around the northern shore of the lake, to get news from the Griffin, but nothing 
could be learned of her fate. 



34 Arrival in Canada. 

The leaf-strewn ground was set on fire, but the wily enemy fol- 
lowed their tracks like bloodhounds. Lest they might come up- 
on them in the night, no camp-fires were made. The cold supper 
of dried meat was eaten in silence, each wrapped himself in 
his blankets, and laid down to sleep, knowing that an enemy was 
near, thirsting for their blood. Thus they proceeded on their way 
till the second of April, on which night the cold was too severe 
to bear, and a fire was kindled to thaw their clothes, which ^ere 
stiffened with ice. No sooner than the light was descried, their 
pursuers came upon them with terrific yells ; but, happily for 
La Salle's party, a deep stream intervened between his camp 
and the hostile party. La Salle boldly advanced to its banks to 
get a sight at the enemy, when a parley ensued, which resulted 
in ascertaining them to be a band of Mascoutins, and not Iro- 
quois, as at first supposed. The mistake was mutual, as the 
Mascoutins also supposed La Salle's party to be a band of Iro- 
quois, to meet whom was the signal for a fight. This danger 
averted, they continued their journey till the Detroit river was 
reached. Two of his men were sent from this place to Michili- 
mackinac ; and with the remaining two, among whom was Nika, 
he crossed the Detroit river on a raft, and bent his course toward 
the north shore of Lake Erie ; reaching which place, a canoe 
was made, and the travelers started for Ft. Niagara, coasting the 
northern shore of the lake. 

It was past the middle of April when they arrived. The hard- 
ships of the journey had told fearfully upon his men. Two of 
them had become unfit for active duty before the Detroit was 
reached ; and now the other two, one of whom was the hardy 
Nika, were unable to proceed farther, while La Salle himself 
was in the flush of strength and vigor — a striking proof of the 
power of a great mind over the body. Here news of fresh dis- 
asters greeted him again. A vessel laden with stores for him, 
from France, was wrecked on entering the St. Lawrence river ; 
but this was not all. His envious enemies in Canada had circu- 
lated various evil reports about him, and not only estranged 
some of his friends, but had induced a new recruit of men from 
France, destined for his service, to desert him. Never before had 
such a combination of disasters overtaken him. The very ele- 
ments seemed to have conspired to destroy what the treachery 
of his supposed friends could not. In this extremity, he select- 
ed three fresh men from Ft. Niagara, and started for Montreal. 
On the 6th of May, he arrived at Ft. Frontenac, on his way, 
which was the spot where his knighthood had been endowed 
with a seigniory of land. Here he might have become the 
wealthiest man in Canada, could he have contented himself to 
parcel out these lands to the peasantry of Canada, and receive 
rents from them, like other noblemen. But these honors would 



The Deserters. 35 

have been stale and insipid to the high-minded explorer, whose 
mind ran on the destinies of New France. When he reached 
Montreal, his dignified bearing was a matter of astonishment to 
his enemies, and was not long in restoring the confidence of his 
friends. The grandeur of his still unshaken resolution was con- 
sistent with the even grander schemes in which he had enlisted 
for life ; and, in less than a week after his arrival, both men and 
money were placed at his disposal, to renew his plans. Active 
preparations were now made for his departure to the Illinois 
country with his new recruits ; but before these were completed, 
he received bad news from Ft. Creve-Cceur, by messengers sent 
from Tonty. The fort had been plundered and entirely destroy- 
ed by its own garrison, all having joined in the infamous work 
except Tonty and four or five others of his companions, who 
were still true to La Salle's interest. 

The renegades took the advantage of a brief absence of Tonty 
to accomplish the work ; and, ere his return, they had robbed 
the place of everything of value which could be carried away, 
and threw into the river what they could not steal. Next, they 
went to Ft. Miamis and committed similar depredations, and 
closed their career of robbery at Michilimackinac, by stealing a 
quantity of furs at that place, which belonged to La Salle. 
Soon after this unwelcome news came, two other messengers 
arrived, and informed La Salle that the robbers, numbering 
twelve men, in three gangs, were now on their way to Ft. Fron- 
tenac, with the intention of killing him at sight. Selecting nine 
of his bravest men, he now resolved to waylay them ere their 
arrival. In this he was successful, and soon returned to Ft. Fron- 
tenac with the whole party as prisoners, except two who had 
been killed in the encounter. 

It was now of the utmost importance that he should make all 
haste to the Illinois country, to relieve Tonty of the perils which 
environed him. On the 10th of August everything was made 
ready, and he embarked from Ft. Frontenac with his new com- 
mand, numbering twenty-five men. He chose his route by the 
way of Lake Simcoe and along the shores of Georgian Bay to 
Michilimackinac. From this place he started in advance, with 
twelve men, and left the rest to transport the heavy materials, 
under command of La Forest. Coasting along the east shore of 
Lake Michigan, he soon came to the St. Joseph, and, as he ex- 
pected, found Ft. Miamis in ruins. Leaving five of his men 
here to rebuild the fort and await the approach of La Forest, he 
pushed on by the same route he had traveled before, through the 
perplexing mazes of the Kankakee, in its mud -bound circlings. 
No signs of human life were seen; but when the Illinois 
river was reached, herds of buffalo made their appearance, 
and the scene was changed. Hurrying along in painful 



36 Iroquois Invasion of the Illinois Country. 

suspense, the site of the once familiar Indian town was 
reached ; but instead of a wild, tumultuous scene of Indians 
dancing grotesque figures or grouped around in lazy dalliance, a 
ghastly spectacle cf human skulls projecting from the ramparts 
of the ruined fort greeted his eyes. The Iroquois had been 
there and swept away every sign of life, not even respecting the 
tombs of the dead ; for these had been desecrated, and masses 
of fetid flesh and disjointed bones lay scattered over the green. 

This crushing disaster had fallen upon La Salle when hope 
was reviving of a speedy accomplishment of his plans. Search- 
ing among the slain, all the while fearing he should find Tonty 
and his three or four faithful comrades, a painful sense of his for- 
lorn situation came over him ; but he was calm, and betrayed no 
signs of despair. A night of horrors succeeded, in which sleep 
was impossible. Gangs of wolves, quarreling over the spoils of 
battle-field, fell upon their ears, as they listened in silence for 
the war-whoop of the triumphant foe. The next morning, La 
Salle, with four of his men, followed the path of the fugitives 
and their pursuers down the river, to see if any tidings could be 
heard of Tonty. He kept on till he arrived at the mouth of the 
river, and here for the first time beheld the majestic Father of 
Waters, whose accumulated floods were gathered from the far- 
off realms of Nature's unoccupied domain, still slumbering in 
secret recluses. Neither Tonty nor any signs of life could be 
found, and he returned to the spot where he had left his three 
companions. From here, the whole party, after loading them- 
selves with half-burnt corn, which the destroyers had set fire to, 
started for Ft. Miamis on the St. Joseph river, arriving at the 
place in January, 1681. Here he fouud his command, who, 
.according to his orders, had followed on with the baggage, after 
he had left MichiHmackinac, a few weeks before, in such haste, 
to relieve Tonty. 

All his plans had miscarried ; here were his men huddled to- 
gother within the scanty limits of Ft. Miamis, but his base of 
operations on the Illinois river had been swept away like chaff 
before a whirlwind, and not a solitary representative of his allies 
the Illinois remained in their native land, and his work was to 
begin anew. His resolution was taken at once. A strong league 
of all the western tribes must be formed, for defensive purposes, 
against the Iroquois, before he dared to push his explorations 
down the Mississippi ; and, indeed, it was all-important that the 
French should show themselves able to defend those western 
tribes, as a preliminary step toward getting possession of their 
country, or, rather, gaining a foothold in it. 

The late Iroquois invasion of the Illinois country, of which La 
Salle had just witnessed the ravages, was not a mere ebullition of 
savage frenzy, but the result of a public policy quite as excusa- 



Meeting of La Salle and Tonty. 37 

ble as the ordinary wars of civilized nations. The fur trade was 
the largest interest, at that time, throughout the entire country, 
and sharp rivalry in this branch of commerce had always existed 
between the Dutch settlements on the Hudson river, and the 
Canadian French. Acting in harmony with the Dutch, the Iro- 
quois themselves had become factors of this branch of industry, 
and reaped quite a revenue by buying furs of the western tribes, 
and selling them to the Dutch. It was. therefore, adverse to their 
interest to have the French among the Illinois, inasmuch as it gave 
not only the entire Illinois' trade to them, but threatened to turn 
the trade with the tribes to the east away from themselves into 
French hands. A similar rivalry exists this day between Chica- 
go and Canadian cities as to who shall command the most trade. 
But the matter is settled by national comity, in the shape of 
reciprocity treaties, instead of a resort to the sword. 

La Salle with his men remained at Ft. Miamis till March, when 
the severity of winter had abated, and he could again venture 
into the forest haunts of the Indians to execute his plans. The 
Illinois tribes had returned to their ancient villages, smarting 
under their late humiliation, and the occasion was favorable for 
La Salle's plan, to unite them with the Miamis and other western 
tribes, for the purpose of repelling Iroquois invasion. He there- 
fore convened a council of the different tribes, and soon persuad- 
ed them to forget their former causes for resentment, and unite 
under his standard and make common cause against the common 
enemy of both the French and the western tribes. By this pol- 
itic diplomacy, La Salle had turned the late Iroquois victory 
over the Illinois to his own account, and opened the way for re- 
suming his grand adventure ; but before anything farther could 
be done, it was necessary to return to Canada, and acquaint his 
friends with the new situation. 

The genial influences of May had made the canoe navigation 
of the lake secure, and he started at once along the east shore to 
reach Canada by the same route he had last come. Arriv- 
ing at Michilimackinac, his cup of joy was brimming over, for 
Tonty had also just arrived there from Green Bay, at which place 
he had been ice-bound for the winter, as La Salle himself had 
been at Ft. Miami on the St. Joseph. The two distinguished 
explorers were necessary to each other, and their joy was mutual. 

When the Iroquois army came upon the Illinois village, Tonty 
was among them with Father Membre ; and, rightly judging that 
his allies would be defeated by their haughty invaders, he deter- 
mined to try the arts of diplomacy to ward off, if possible, the 
impending blow. Both armies were drawn up in order of battle 
on the open prairie in front of the village, and the usual prelude 
to an Indian fight, such as horrible yellings and defiant war- 
whoops, were in full tide, when Tonty, with a heroism seldom 



38 Rendezvous at Ft. Miamis. 

witnessed, advanced from the ranks of his Illinois friends toward 
the Iroquois, bearing a flag of truce. The astonished invaders 
received him into their councils, and, for a time, their skirmish- 
ing, which had already begun, ceased. The Iroquois were unde- 
cided in opinion whether he should be instantly tomahawked or 
let go, and one chief thrust his spear into his side, inflicting a 
painful wound — perhaps to experiment on his mettle. Tonty 
bore it with the immobility of a subject for the dissecting-room, 
which had the effect to elevate him vastly in the estimation of 
the Iroquois,' and they let him go, but were not to be turned 
from their purpose ; and they attacked the Illinois and drove 
them from their homes — seized a large number of their squaws, 
whom they led to their far-off lodges in the present State of 
New York, there to become their supernumerary wives. 

After Tonty 's efforts to bring about a reconciliation between 
the two contending armies had failed, he withdrew, and, with 
Membre, made the best of his way to the mission of St. Francis 
Xavier at Green Bay. 

The following summer was employed by La Salle in his trip 
to Canada and return to his place of rendezvous at Ft. Miamis. 
All that he had hoped for in the way of preparation for his third 
attempt had been accomplished to his satisfaction, and nothing 
remained but to start on the enterprise. Besides the twenty- 
three Frenchmen in his command, eighteen Indians were taken 
into his service, ten of whom chose to take their squaws with 
them, to do camp duty.* Father Membre accompanied the ex- 
pedition, and has given its history, which begins as follows : 

" On the 21st of December I embarked, with the Sieur de 
Tonty and a part of our people, on Lake Dauphin (Michigan), to 
go toward the divine river called by the Indians Checaugou, in 
order to make necessary arrangements for our voyage. The 
Sieur de La Salle joined us there with the rest of his troop, on 
the 4th of January, 1682, aud found that Tonty had had slieghs 
made, to put all on and carry it, when the Checaugou was frozen 
over. ' ' 

The exact words of Father Membre have been quoted to show 
the antiquity of the name Chicago, which the father spelled Che- 
caugou. 

The whole party began their journey, it appears, with sleighs 
drawn by the men, on the icy faces of the Chicago, Desplaines, 
and Illinois rivers, till open water was reached at Peoria lake. 
Here the canoes were unloaded from the sleighs and launched in 
the Illinois river. The camping utensils were stowed away, the 

* These Indians were fugitives from New England, who, having been conquered 
in king Philip's war, had found an asylum in the far West. 



La Salle at the Mouth of the Mississippi. 39 

four Indian babies who accompanied them slung away in some 
nook where thej would be least in the way, and the flotilla moved 
along on its way, propelled by strong arms assisted by the cur- 
rent. 

The old site of Ft. Creve-Cceur and the amateur ship-yard 
near by it, was soon passed, as they skimmed down the whirling 
current, and the view was quickly lost to sight, if not the pain- 
ful remembrances which must have been recalled to La Salle and 
Tonty.* When night came, the whole party moored their boats 
on the bank of the river, pitched their tents, slung their kettles 
on tripods, and built their fires. After a supper of boiled hom- 
iny and dried beef, they prostrated their weary forms on the 
ground for the night. This was the daily routine till the mouth 
of the Mississippi was reached, although it was varied with in- 
tercourse with different tribes of Indians on their way, among 
whom such improvements as adobe houses, earthen plates, and 
domestic fowls were found. f 

It was on the 9th of April that they arrived at the low and 
grassy margin of the Gulf of Mexico, upon those attenuated 

foints of spongy soil scarcely deserving the name of banks, 
'ar in the rear, upon the treeless banks of the river, the dry 
grasses of April rasped their dry blades together with a din of 
buzzing before the wind. The gulf rolled in her heavy swells 
against the unceasing torrent of the river, which met iike two 
opposing forces of nature ; and here, amid these desolations, the 
party landed and erected the inevitable cross. Beside it, the 
arms of France, engraved on a leaden plate, was buried. A 
solemn service of prayer and singing was then performed, and, 
with impressive forms, possession was taken of the whole valley 
of the Mississippi and named Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV., 
king of France. 

The whole party now started on the return, tugging against 
the scalloping currents of the river, which tossed their light boats 
like vessels in a storm. Far away to the right and left, the dis- 
tant forests pushed their hoary tops into the horizon, walling in 
the lonely passage to the sea of the gathered waters of half a conti 
nent. This immense valley was now a French province, by vir- 
tue of the wooden cross just erected, around which the amphib- 
ious monsters of the gulf were to gambol in security as soon as 
the adventurers were out of sight. 

* The original plan of building a vessel to navigate the Mississippi had been 
abandoned for the more practical canoe of that early age. 
| These were seen below the Arkansas. 



CHAPTER III. 

La Salle Returns to the Illinois Country — Ft. St. Louis Built 
— La Salle leaves Tonty in Command of Ft. St. Louis, and 
Starts for France — Tonty Unjustly Superseded in Command 
by La Barre, the New Governor of Canada — La Salle at 
the Court of Louis XIV. — La Barre Recalled — Tonty Re- 
stored to Command — La Salle furnished with a Fleet to Sail 
for the Mouth of the Mississippi and Establish a Colony — 
The Fleet Passes its Destination, and Lands on the Coast of 
Texas — Treachery of Beaujeu — La Salle Builds a Fort — His 
Vessels Lost — Desperate Condition of the Colony — La Salle 
starts Across the Wilds for the Illinois Coimtry — He is As- 
sassinated on the Way — The Murderers fall upon each other 
— Return of Cavelier and His Party — Tonty'* s Fort on the 
Arkansas — Mendacious Concealment of La Salle's Death — 
Iberville and Bienville make a Settlement at the Mouth of 
Mississippi — Analysis of the English Colonies. 

La Salle's exploration of the Mississippi was the work of a 
master mind ; but, for the present, it was an unwieldy acquisi- 
tion to the complicated as well as overburdened executive capa- 
bilities of the Canadian government. 

Had La Salle's means been sufficient, he would have immedi- 
ately established a fort at the mouth of the river, as a depot for 
receiving and shipping buffalo hides and furs, from the inex- 
haustible sources of supply for these valuable goods, in the lim- 
itless wilds drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries. But 
his labors thus far had not only exhausted his own means in ex- 
ploration, but had drawn largely upon the resources of his friends, 
as well as leaving him in debt even to the men who had perform- 
ed the drudgery of the camp. 

On his passage up the Mississippi, he had been seized with a 
violent attack of fever, and was unable to pursue his journey, 
with the comfortless accommodations afforded by their canoes ; 
but, fortunately for him, a fort had been built at the Chickasaw 
bluffs, on their passage down,* and his strength barely held out 

*Fort Prudhomme. On their passage down the river, a landing was made here 
for the purpose of hunting. While thus engaged, Father Prudhomme was lost in 
the woods, and, while searching for him, a fort was built and named for him. He 
was found after two days' search, in a state of great exhaustion. 



Ft. St. Louis Built in the Illinois Country. 41 

till their arrival at this place. Here he remained till he was 
able to resume his journey, attended by Father Membre. Mean- 
time, Tonty hastened forward to the Illinois country with the 
men, for it was all-important that a nucleus of French power 
should be established here, in order to utilize the late discove- 
ries. 

This was no easy task to accomplish, especially from the un- 
tempered materials out of which it was to be improvised ; but 
La Salle, who never looked upon any obstacle in his way as in- 
surmountable, went to work with his accustomed resolution, as 
soon as he was able again to take the field. The yellow tints of 
autumn had begun to imprint their stamp upon the forests when 
he and Tonty had commenced building Ft. St. Louis at Starved 
Hock, where the western tribes might gather around the lilies of 
France, with an assurance of protection.* 

This work completed, La Salle intended to sail for France, as 
soon as he could arrive at Quebec, the starting point. 

At this juncture, rumors of an Iroquois invasion of the Bli- 
mois country came to hand, and postponed his anticipated visit 
to the French court ; for to desert his Illinois allies in this hour 
of danger, would be a forfeiture of French interests on the prai- 
ries, as well as a relinquishment of his plans for a French colony 
at the mouth of the Mississippi. 

A large number of Indians, composed of several western 
tribes besides the Illinois, were now tenanted along the Illinois 
river adjacent to the fort, who, with the aid of a small number 
of Frenchmen, would be able to repel any Iroquois invasion 
likely to be sent against them. But to hold these capricious 
wanderers to the French interest, a stock of goods for barter 
with them, and a few Frenchmen to do military duty, were ne- 
cessary. These must come from Canada. Had Frontenac still 
been Governor, all would have been well ; but this able man 
had been removed through the machinations of some of the jar- 
ring interests of the province, and La Barre put in his place. 
He was no friend to La Salle, and instead of reinforcing him 
with the necessary men for service in the Illinois country, he 
detained those in Canada designed for that post, and withheld 
all supplies from him. La Salle had now no other recourse left, 
but to remain at his post in the Illinois country during the win- 
ter, ruminating in his fertile brain on future plans, whereby he 
could bring to the knowledge of the French king an appreciative 
sense of the magnitude of his discoveries. The next summer 
was nearly spent in the same painful uncertainty amidst the ser- 
vile tribes of the prairies, whose lack of courage to protect thein- 

* This spot was chosen as a place of great natural strength, where a few French- 
men could hold a nation of savages at bay. 



42 La Salle Arrives in Paris. 

selves contrasted unfavorably with the prowess of the conquer- 
ing Iroquois. 

Autumn was approaching — the expected invasion of these 
champions of the forest had not come — and La Salle determined 
to start for France. On his way to Quebec, he met an officer 
going to the Illinois country, with a commission from La Barre, 
the governor of Canada, to take possession of Ft. St. Louis, the 
citadel of the rock tower, which was then the key to the inte- 
rior. Tonty had first built this fort, and, by virtue of La Salle's 
authority, now held command of it ; and though he alone was 
better qualified to command it than any other one except 
La Salle, yet he peaceably conformed to the authority of La 
Barre, and took a subordinate position under Baugis, the late 
appointee of La Barre. 

The following March, the expected Iroquois came and besieg- 
ed the place for six days. The fort held out, and the discomfit- 
ted invaders, for once balked of their expected victory, retreated. 

La Salle was now in Paris. La Barre' s villainous aspersions 
had preceded him, in the vain attempt to undervalue his discov- 
eries and wrest from him what little authority yet remained in 
his hands as commander of Ft. Frontenac and almoner of seign- 
iorial rights of the lands of the Illinois country.* This was 
more than calumny could accomplish. Sixteen years of toil and 
disappointment, of hope deterred, crowned at last with a success 
only waiting recognition, had moulded lines of irresistible advo- 
cacy into the weather-beaten face of La Salle. He no sooner 
gained a hearing at the court of Versailles than the reports of 
his enemies recoiled upon themselves. La Barre was recalled, 
Denonville was made governor of Canada, and the command 
of Ft. St. Louis restored to Tonty, the incarnation of courage 
and fidelity, and the only one now worthy of holding it. 

La Salle, now fully restored to the confidence of the French 
court, was furnished with a fleet of four vessels to fulfill the cher- 
ished project of his ambition — the establishment of a French col- 
ony at the mouth of the Mississippi. The fleet sailed from B,o- 
chelle on the 24th of July, 1684, with 280 adventurers who en- 
listed in the service as emigrants, to form a colony in the wilds 
of America. Among them were artisans of various trades and 
a few young women. Several priests also accompanied the ex- 
pedition, among whom was Cavelier, the brother of La Salle, 

* La Salle's patent of nobility had invested him with authority to parcel out the 
lands around Ft. St. Louis to French settlers, who would marry natives and settle 
on the land. This was done to encourage permanent colonization, but the recipi- 
ents of these emoluments abused their privileges by marrying new wives as often 
as their whimsical propensities or their interests demanded, greatly to the disgust 
of La Salle. 



His Fleet Sails for the Mouth of the Mississippi. 43 

and Joutel, whose history of the progress and tragical termina- 
tion of the scheme is now esteemed as the best authority. 

The general command was given to La Salle, but unfortunately 
another person, by the name of Beaujeu, had charge of the fleet, 
whose authority did not go beyond the management of the ves- 
sels. He was by birth from a family of note, and had been for 
many years in the king's service — at least long enough to spoil 
him for the position he was now to occupy as a subordinate to 
La Salle, whose experience in the wilds of America was sneered 
at by the officious captain. 

On their way to the mouth of the Mississippi, much dissension 
arose between Beaujeu and La Salle. The former was envi- 
ous and the latter tenacious. One vessel, containing valuable 
stores, was captured by Spanish cruisers in consequence of Beau- 
jeu' s disobedience of La Salle's orders to land at Port de Paix, 
a harbor of La Tortue. 

After much detention at the West India Islands, in conse- 
quence of the sickness of La Salle, the fleet finally entered the 
G-ulf of Mexico, and made sail for their destination, as near as 
they could calculate their course from the latitude and longitude 
taken by La Salle when he with his canoe fleet, two years be- 
fore, had discovered the mouth of the river to which they were 
now tending. 

Coasting along the northern shore of the gulf, they made sev- 
eral landings, but finally passed by the place, either through 
ignorance or design of the faithless Beaujeu. Continuing along 
the shore, which trended southwardly, La Salle soon became 
convinced that they had missed their destination, and urged up- 
on Beaujeu to retrace the mysterious path which had now brought 
them to the treeless and sandy shores of Texas. This he refus- 
ed to do, on the ground that his provisions were getting short, 
and he must return immediately to France. La Salle, convinced 
of the mistake they had made, offered him fifteen days' extra 
provisions, which would have been more than sufficient to feed 
the crew while engaged in continuing the search. Even this 
proposition Beaujeu had the effrontery to discard. 

In attempting to land, one of the three remaining vessels was 
stranded, and became a total wreck ; but, notwithstanding this 
calamity, Beaujeu set sail for France, leaving La Salle and his 
men to their fate on the savage and unknown shore whither they 
had been drifted like lost travelers. 

In this extremity La Salle landed his men and built a fort on 
the shores of Matagorda Bay, for this was the spot where the 
winds and waves had cast them. He was not without hopes 
that one of the rivers which emptied into it was one of the devi- 
ous mouths of the Mississippi ; which, perhaps, may account for 



44: French Colony in Texas. 

his not continuing his search for this illusive object with the re- 
maining vessel.* 

The note in the margin is Joutal's account of the build- 
ing of the fort. The same faithful historian has recorded 
in his journal the wanderings of La Salle in his search for the 
fatal river, as he (Joutal) always called it. This search was per- 
sisted in for two years, during which time disease and death 
were wasting away the unhappy colony, till but a feeble remnant 
was left, while, to make their situation still more desperate, their 
last remaining vessel was wrecked in crossing the bay on some 
local service. To save them, La Salle formed the desperate res- 
olution to make his way on foot across the country to Canada, 
and obtain relief for these victims of his unlucky enterprise. 

Joutel, in giving an account of his starting, says : 

"We set out on the 12th of January, in the year 1687, being 
seventeen in number, viz : Monsieur de La Salle, Monsieur Cav- 
elier the priest, his brother, Father Anastasius the recollet, Mes- 
sieurs Moranget and Cavelier, nephews to Monsieur de La Salle, 

* " When Mons. de Beaujeu was gone, we fell to work to make a fort, of the 
wreck of the ship that had been cast away and many pieces of timber the sea 
threw up ; and during that time several men deserted, which added to Monsieur 
de La Salle's affliction. A Spaniard and a Frenchman stole away and fled, and 
were never more heard of. Four or five others followed their example, but Mon- 
sieur de La Salle, having timely notice, sent after them, and they were brought 
back. One of them was condemned to death, and the others to serve the king 
ten years in that country. 

" When our fort was well advanced, Monsieur de La Salle resolved to clear his 
doubts, and to go up the river where we were, to know whether it was not an arm 
of the Mississippi, and accordingly ordered fifty men to attend him, of which 
number were Monsieur Cavelier, his brother, and Monsieur Chedeville, both 
priests, two recollet friars, and several volunteers, who set out in five canoes we 
had, with the necessary provisions. There remained in the fort about an hundred 
and thirty persons, and Monsieur de La Salle gave me the command of it, with 
orders not to have any commerce with the natives, but to fire at them if they ap- 
peared. 

'•Whilst Monsieur de La Salle was absent, I caused an oven to be built, which 
was a great help to us, and employed myself in finishing the fort and putting it in 
a posture to withstand the Indians, who came frequently in the night to range 
about us, howling like wolves and dogs ; but two or three musket shots put them 
to flight. It happened one night that, having fired six or seven shots, Monsieur 
de La Salle, who was not far from us, heard them, and being in pain about it, he 
returned with six or seven men, and found all things in a good posture. 

" He told us he had found a good country, fit to sow and plant all sorts of 
grain, abounding in beeves and wild-fowl ; that he designed to erect a fort farther 
up the river, and accordingly he left me orders to square out as much timber as I 
could get, the sea casting up much upon the shore. He had given the same or- 
ders to the men he had left on the spot, seven or eight of whom, detached from 
the rest, being busy at that work, and seeing a number of the natives, fled, and 
un advisably left their tools behind them. Monsieur de La Salle returning thither, 
found a paper made fast to a reed, which gave him notice of that accident, which 
he was concerned at, because of the tools, not so much for the value of the loss, 
as because it was furnishing the natives with such things as they might afterward 
make use of against us." 



La Salle Starts for the Illinois Country. 45 

the Sieurs Duhaut the elder, l'Archeveque, Hiens, Liotot, sur- 
geon, young Talon, an Indian," and a footman belooging to 
Monsieur de La Salle, &c. We carried along with us part of 
the best things every man had, and what was thought would be 
of use, wherewith the five horses were loaded, and we took our 
leaves with as much tenderness and sorrow, as if we had all pre- 
saged that we should never see each other more. Father Zeno- 
bius was the person who expressed it to me most significantly, 
saying he had never been so sensibly touched at parting with 
anybody." 

Many a parting adieu was waved to the travelers as they slowly 
made their way across the extended plain in front of the fort, till 
the last glimpse of their receding forms was lost in the expanse 
of wilderness which intervened between them and New France. 

La Salle with his men urged their way over the vast plains of 
Texas, swimming the rivers that crossed their path, subsisting 
on buffalo meat, and camping nightly on the ground, till they 
reached the Trinity river. The route thus far had been traveled 
a few months before by La Salle, in his erratic wanderings in 
quest of the "fatal river," and having an overstock of provisions 
at that time, he concealed some beans in a hollow tree for possi- 
ble future use. Being now encamped hard by, he despatched 
Liotot, Hiens, Teissier, L'Archeveque, Nika, and Saget, to se- 
cure them. To their disappointment, they found them spoiled ; 
but, on their return, Nika shot two buffalo. Saget was now des- 
patched to the camp of La Salle for horses to bring in the meat, 
to be cured for use on the way. 

The request was gladly complied with by sending two messen- 
gers, Moranget and De Marie, to return with Saget with the 
necessary horses. The meat had already been cut into thin sli- 
ces and hung out to dry by the usual process ; all except some 
choice bits which Duhaut and his pals had reserved for them- 
selves. This was an acknowledged prerogative of the hunter 
who killed game, and to Nika only belonged this right ; but 
Moranget, in no mood to respect these distinctions, abusing the 
whole party in a storm of indignation, seized all the meat by 
force. 

The tragedy that followed is related by Joutel as follows : 

"The 16th, in their return, they met with two bullocks, which 
Monsieur de La Salle's Indian killed, whereupon they sent back 
Ins footman, to give him notice of what they had killed, that ii 
he would have the flesh dried, he might send horses for it. The 

* The Indian mentioned by Joutel was Nika. This faithful servant had accom- 
panied La Salle in all his forest marches ever since he first pushed his way into 
the lake country, and had mere than once furnished subsistence to his famishing 
men by his superior skill in hunting, and had piloted them safely through myste- 
rious portages known only to Indians. 



46 Revolt and Murder Begin. 

17th, Monsieur de La Salle had the horses taken up, and ordered 
the Sieurs Moranget and de Marie, his footman, to go for that 
meat, and send back a horse load immediately, till the rest was 
dried. 

" Monsieur Moranget, when he came thither, found they had 
smoked both the beeves, though they were not dry enough ; and 
tha said Sieurs Liotot, Hiens, Duhaut, and the rest, had laid 
aside the marrow-bones and others to roast them, as was usual 
to do. The Sieur Moranget found fault with it ; he in a passion 
seized not only the flesh that was smoked and dried, but also the 
bones, without giving them anything; but on the contrary, 
threatening they should not eat so much of it as they had imag- 
ined, and that, he would manage that flesh after another manner. 

u This passionate behavior, so much out of season, an'd con- 
trary to reason and custom, touched the surgeon Liotot, Hiens, 
and Duhaut to the quick, they having other causes of complaint 
against Moranget. They withdrew, and resolved together upon 
a bloody revenge ; they agreed upon the manner of it, and con- 
cluded they would murder the Sieur Moranget, Monsieur de La 
Salle's footman, and his Indian, because he was very faithful to 
him. 

"They waited till night, when those unfortunate creatures had 
supped and were asleep. Liotot the surgeon was the inhuman 
executioner. He took an axe, began by the Sieur Moranget, 
giving him many strokes on the head ; the same he did by the 
footman and the Indian, killing them on the spot, whilst his fel- 
low-villains, viz.: Duhaut, Hiens, Teissier, and L'Archeveque, 
stood upon their guard, with their arms, to fire upon such as 
should make any resistance. The Indian and the footman never 
stirred, but the Sieur Moranget had so much vigor as to sit up, 
but without being able to speak one word, and the assassins 
obliged the Sieur de Marie to make an end of him, though he 
was not in the conspiracy. 

"This slaughter had yet satisfied but one part of the revenge 
of those murderers. To finish it and secure themselves it was 
requisite to destroy the commander-in-chief. They cousulted 
about the safest method to effect it, and resolved to go together 
to Monsieur de La Salle, to knock out the brains of the most 
resolute immediately, and then it would be easier to overcome 
the rest. But the river, which was between them and us, being 
much swollen, the difficulty of passing it made them put it off* 
the 18th and 19th. On the other hand, Monsieur de La Salle 
was very uneasy on account of their long stay. His impatience 
made him resolve to go himself to find out his people, and to 
know the cause of it. 

"This was not done without many previous tokens of concern 
and apprehension. He seemed to have some presage of his mis- 



La Salle Falls a Victim, 47 

fortune, inquiring of some whether the Sieur Liotot, Hiens, and 
Duhaut had not expressed some discontent ; and not hearing 
anything of it, he could not forbear setting out the 20th, with 
Father Anastasius and an Indian, leaving me the command in 
his absence, and charging me from time to time to go the rounds 
about our camp, to prevent being surprised, and to make a smoke 
for him to direct his way in case of need. When he came near 
the dwelling of the murderers, looking out sharp to discover 
something, he observed eagles fluttering about a spot not far 
from them, which made him believe they had found some carri- 
on about the mansion, and he fired a shot, which was the signal 
of his death and forwarded it. 

"The conspirators hearing the shot, concluded it was Mon- 
sieur de La Salle, who was come to seek them. They made 
ready their arms and provided to surprise him. Duhaut passed 
the river. L'Archeveque, the first of them, spying Monsieur de 
La Salle at a distance, as he was coming toward them, advanced 
and hid himself among the high weeds, to wait his passing by, 
so that Monsieur de La Salle, suspecting nothing, and having 
not so much as charged his piece again, saw the aforesaid L'Ar- 
cheveque at a good distance from him, and immediately asked 
for his nephew Moranget, to which L'Archeveque answered that 
he was along the river. At the same time the traitor Duhaut 
fired his piece and shot Monsieur de La Salle through the head, 
so that he dropped down dead on the spot, without speaking one 
word. 

" Father Anastasius, who was then by his side, stood stock 
still in a fright, expecting the same fate, and not knowing wheth- 
er he should go forward or backward ; but the murderer Duhaut 
put him out of that dread, bidding him not to fear, for no hurt 
was intended him ; that it was despair that had prevailed with 
him to do what he saw ; that he had long desired to be revenged 
on Moranget, because he had designed to ruin him, and that he 
was partly the occasion of his uncle's death. This is the exact 
relation of that murder, as it was presently after told me by F. 
Anastasius. 

"Such was the unfortunate end of Monsieur de La Salle's life, 
at a time when he might entertain the greatest hopes as the re- 
ward of his labors. He had a capacity and talent to make his 
enterprise successful ; his constancy and courage and his extraor- 
dinary knowledge of the arts and sciences, which rendered him 
fit for anything, together with an indefatigable body, which made 
him surmount all difficulties, would have procured a glorious 
issue to his undertaking, had not all those excellent qualities been 
counterbalanced by too haughty a behavior, which sometimes 
made him insupportable, and by a rigidness toward those tha 



48 The Guilty and Innocent in Council. 

were under his command, which at last drew on him an impla- 
cable hatred, and was the occasion of his death. 

u The shot which had killed Monsieur de La Salle was also a 
signal of the murder to the assassins for them to draw near. 
They all repaired to the place where the wretched dead corpse 
lay, which they barbarously stripped to the shirt, and vented 
their malice in vile and opprobrious language. The surgeon Lio- 
tot said several times, in scorn and derision, There thou liest, 
great Basha / there thou liest. In conclusion, they dragged it 
naked among the bushes, and left it exposed to the ravenous 
wild beasts. So far was it from what a certain author writes, of 
their having buried him and set up a cross on his grave. 

" When those murderers had satiated their rage, they set out 
to come to us at our camp with the dried flesh, which they had 
caused to be brought over the river by the Indians, who had 
been spectators of the murder and of all the inhuman acts that 
had been committed, with amazement and contempt of us. 
When they were come to the camp, they found Messieurs Cave- 
lier the one brother, the other nephew to the murdered com- 
mander, whom Father Anastasius acquainted with the dismal 
end of our chief, and enjoined them silence, which it is easy to 
imagine was very hard upon them ; but it was absolutely neces- 
sary. 

"However, Monsieur Cavelier the priest could not forbear 
telling them that if they would do the same by him, he would 
forgive them his murder, and only desired of them to give him 
a quarter of an hour to prepare himself. They answered, they 
had nothing to say to him ; that what they had done was the 
effect of despair, to be revenged for the ill-usage they had re- 
ceived. 

U I was absent at that time; they called L'Archeveque, who, 
as I have said, was one of the conspirators, had some kindness 
for me, and knowing they designed to make me away too, if I 
stood upon my defence, he parted from them, to give me notice 
of their mischievous resolution. He found me on a little rising 
ground, where I was looking upon our horses as they grazed in 
a little adjacent bottom. His intelligence struck me to the heart, 
not knowing whether 1 should fly or stay ; but at length, having 
neither powder nor shot nor arms, and the said L'Archeveque 
giving me assurances of my life, provided I was quiet and said 
nothing, I committed myself to God's protection, and went to 
them, without taking any notice of what had been done. 

"Duhaut, puffed up with his new-gotten authority, procured 
him by his villainy, as soon as he saw me, cried out, Every man 
ought to command in his turn ; to which I made no answer ; and 
we were all of us obliged to stifle our resentment, that it might 
not appear, for our lives depended on it. wever, it was easy 



Eulogy of La Salle. 49 

to judge with what eyes Father Anastasius, Messieurs Cavelier, 
and I beheld these murderers, to whom we expected every mo- 
ment to fall sacrifices. It is true, we dissembled so well that 
they were not very suspicious of us, and that the temptation we 
were under of making them away in revenge for those they had 
murdered, would have easily prevailed and been put in execu- 
tion, had not Monsieur Cavelier the priest always positively op- 
posed it, alleging that we ought to leave vengeance to God. 

u However, the murderers seized upon all the effects, without 
any opposition, and then we began to talk of proceeding on our 
journey." 

Thus, at the age of only forty-three years, fell the hero of a 
thousand conflicts against the calumnies of Jesuits,* the envy 
of rivals, and the untamed forces of Nature herself, against 
which he had contended for twenty years, in the heart of a sav- 
age wilderness. Much of this time the earth had been his couch 
at night, and his companions the savages whose realms he had 
entered. 

With these he was an unusual favorite, not because he took 
the least interest in their every-day routine or catered to the nar- 
row-gauge ideas with which the average mind in a state of na- 
ture was occupied, but because in him was personified a true 
nobility of character which perforce subordinates common grades 
of intellect, whether savages or civilians, to its will. 

He was one of those men whose stamp of genius, in his pecu- 
liar sphere, has been left upon his age, where it will remain an 
indelible record, not only among the forests of America, but 
among the splendors of Versailles, where his sunburnt face once 
stood among the effeminate graces of the French court like a 
giant among pigmies. 

Strange that one so gifted should have had his weak points ; 
but this was the case, and many of his misfortunes and his death 
were traceable to them. His weakness was found in his haughty, 
cold immobility, which repelled considerate counsels and left 
him alone in the hermitage of his thoughts when he needed advice. 

Bereft of their champion, the situation of the party not in the 
conspiracy was perilous in the extreme. The least irritating 
word from them would have been the signal of death. 

Duhaut and Liotot seized upon all the effects of La Salle, even 
the clothing on his person, leaving his naked body on the spot 
where he was killed, the flesh to be eaten and the bones tossed 
about by the wolves, and finally to moulder beneath the grasses 
of the prairie. 

* La Salle never felt friendly to the Jesuits, and always chose priests not belong- 
ing to that order to accompany him. The Jesuits in turn opposed him. Hence 
the unfriendly manner in which Charlevoix speaks of him. 



50 Death of the Assassins. 

The excuse for this was, that it was but a just remuneration 
for the losses they had sustained in following his fortunes to the 
desperate pass to which they were now brought. The appropri- 
ation of La Salle's effects aroused the indignation of the other 
conspirators, but the outbreak destined to finish up the closing 
scene was postponed. 

Fathers of the faith and assassins besmeared with blood com- 
posed the company now left on their way to the realms of civil- 
ization. These incongruous extremes, after being several days 
together, however, are relieved from each others' presence by a 
stroke of retribution as sudden as the death of La Salle himself. 
Joutal's relation of it is as follows : 

u After we had been some days longer in the same place, 
Hiens arrived with the two half-savage Frenchmen* and about 
twenty natives. He went immediately to Duhaut, and, after 
some discourse, told him he was not for going toward the Mis- 
sissippi, because it would be of dangerous consequence for them, 
and therefore demanded his share of the effects he had seized 
upon. Duhaut refusing to comply, and affirming that all the 
axes were his own, Hiens, who it is likely had laid the design 
before to kill him, immediately drew his pistol and fired it upon 
Duhaut, who staggered about four paces from the place and fell 
down dead. At the same time, E-uter, who had been with Hiens, 
fired his piece upon Liotot the surgeon, and shot him through 
with three balls. 

u These murders committed before us put me into a terrible 
consternation; for believing the same was designed for me, I 
laid hold of my firelock to defend myself; but Hiens cried Out 
to me to fear nothing, to lay down my arms, and assured me he 
had no design against me, but that he had revenged his master's 
death. He also satisfied Monsieur Cavelier and Father Anasta- 
sius, who were as much frightened as myself, declaring he meant 
them no harm, and that, though he had been in the conspiracy, 
yet had he been present at the time when Monsieur de La Salle 
was killed, he would not have consented, but rather have ob- 
structed it. 

"Liotot lived some hours after, and had the good fortune to 
make his confession ; after which, the same Euter put him out 
of his pain with a pistol-shot. We dug a hole in the earth and 
buried him in it with Duhaut, doing them more honor than they 
Had done to Monsieur de La Salle and his nephew Moranget, 
\vh m they left to be devoured by wild beasts. Thus those 

*The two savage Frenchmen referred to by Joutal were deserters from La Salle's- 
fort on Matagorda Bay the year before. They had cast their lot with the Indians,, 
aind here met their old comrades by chance. 



Division of La Sallys Effects. 51 

murderers met with what they had deserved, dying the same 
death they had put others to." 

It had been apparent to the innocent party, ever since the 
death of La Salle, that the murderers durst not return to Cana- 
da, and it had been a question not only how to obtain a share of 
the outfit so necessary for the wilderness tour, but how to part 
company amicably with these odious associates. 

The late death of Duhaut and Liotot settled this question very 
readily, Hiens, the leader of the outlaws, declaring that he would 
not risk his neck in Canada, and made an equitable division of 
the spoils. The travelers then cut loose from the late scenes of 
bloodshed, bidding adieu to the malcontents, whose lot was now 
cast with these Indians, less savage than themselves. 

The division of the goods and the final parting is best told by 
Joutel, as follows : 

" Accordingly, he laid aside, for Father Anastasius, Messieurs 
Cavelier, the uncle and the nephew, thirty axes, four or five doz- 
en of knives, about thirty pounds of powder and the like quan- 
tity of ball. He gave each of the others two axes, two knives, 
two or three pounds of powder, with as much ball, and kept the 
rest. As for the horses, he took the best and left us the three 
least. Monsieur Cavelier asked him for some strings of beads, 
which he granted, and seized upon all the late Monsieur de La 
Salle's clothes, baggage, and other effects, besides above a thou- 
sand livres in money, which belonged to the late Monsieur Le 
Gros, who died at our dwelling of St. Louis. Before our de- 
parture, it was a sensible affliction to us to see that villain walk 
about, in a scarlet coat and gold galloons, which had belonged 
to the late Monsieur de La Salle, and which, as I have said, he 
had seized. 

"After that, Hiens and his companions withdrew to their own 
cottage, and we resolved not to put off our departure any longer. 
Accordingly, we made ready our horses, which much alarmed 
the natives, and especially the chief of them, who said and did 
all he could to obstruct our journey, promising us wives, plenty 
of provisions, representing to us the immense dangers, as well 
from enemies who surrounded them as from the bad and impas- 
sable ways and the many woods and rivers we were to pass. 
However, we were not to be moved, and only asked one kind- 
ness of him, in obtaining of which there were many difficulties, 
and it was that he would give us guides to conduct us to Cappa ; 
but at length, after much trouble and many promises of a good 
reward, one was granted, and two others went along with him. 

"All things being thus ordered for our departure, we took 
leave of our hosts, passed by Hien's cottage, and embraced him 
and his companions. We asked him for another horse, which 



52 The Journey Resumed. 

he granted. He desired an attestation, in Latin, of Monsieur 
Cavelier, that he had not been concerned in the murder of Mon- 
sieur de La Salle, which was given him, because there was no 
refusing of it ; and we set forward with L'Archeveque and Meu- 
nier, who did not keep their word with us, but remained among 
those barbarians, being infatuated with that course of libertinism 
thej had run themselves into. Thus there were only seven of 
us that stuck together to return to Canada, viz : Father Anasta- 
tasius, Messieurs Cavelier, the uncle and the nephew, the Sieur 
de Marie, one Teissier, a young man born at Paris, whose name 
was Bartholomew, and I, with six horses and the three Indians 
who were to be our guides ; a very small number for so great an 
enterprise, but we put ourselves entirely into the hands of Di- 
vine Providence, confiding in God's mercy, which did not for- 
sake us." 

While they are laboring through the solitudes of the dreary 
country, we will follow the adventures of Tonty in his noble at- 
tempt to rescue La Salle's colony. 

After the news of La Salle's departure from France to colonize 
the Mississippi country had reached Canada and the Illinois set- 
tlements, Tonty, who was stationed at the latter place, was fired 
with zeal to serve the new colony by every means in his power. 
Accordingly, he assembled a band of twenty Frenchmen and 
thirty Indians, and with this force, on the 13th of February, 
1686, went down the Mississippi river to its mouth, where he 
expected to find his old friend La Salle at the head of a flourish- 
ing colony ; but what was his surprise and disappointment when, 
after searching through the whole region, no trace of it could be 
found. 

After leaving marks of his presence in various places, he wrote 
a letter to La Salle, and left it with the chief of the Bayagoulas, 
who promised to send it to him should he ever learn his where- 
abouts. 

Tonty then started up the river with his men ; but when he 
arrived at the mouth of the Arkansas, he deemed it prudent to 
build a fort, and leave a force of six men, among whom were 
Couture and De Launay, here to succor the colony if possible.* 

This done, he returned to his post in the Illinois country. 

For more than a year these sentinels of the forest remained at 
their post, holding themselves in readiness for any emergency. 

Hard by was a large village of the Arkansas tribe, who enliv- 
ened the hermitage of the Frenchmen with the rude amusements 
of Indian life. 

One summer day, while the tedious hours were being measur- 

* Tonty's Memoir, in French's Hist. Coll., vol. I, p. 68. 



Arrival at the Arkansas, 53 

ed out with their dull routine, the Frenchmen were startled from 
their reveries by a French voice across the river, which flowed 
by their palisaded retreat, and they immediately fired two guns 
as a signal, which the party across the river answered. 

Two canoes were immediately sent across the river, and the 
tired travelers were soon taken over and conducted into the fort. 

The reader scarcely need be told that they were the fugitives 
from La Salle's unhappy colony in Texas. Cavelier, his brother, 
was the principal spokesman, and as he related the long train of 
overwhelming disasters which had befallen the colony, and at 
last came to the cruel assassination of La Salle, their listeners 
gave vent to their feelings in tears and sobs. 

After a brief rest, the travelers resumed their journey for the 
Dlinois country, leaving the lonesome garrison at their post, 
whose duties were now to establish a representation of French 
interests in the country. 

On the 14th of September, they arrived at the old familiar 
grounds of Ft. St. Louis, on the Illinois river, opposite the pres- 
ent town of Utica ; and now comes the strange part of the history. 

Tonty, tbe commander, was absent fighting the Iroquois, and 
Bellefontaine, his lieutenant, stood in his place. All were eager 
to get tidings from La Salle, and, in response to their inquiries, 
they were told that he was well when they left, but omitted to 
state that he had been assassinated on the way — a very question- 
able way of telling the truth by establishing a falsehood, the in- 
centive for which, it is but fair to presume, must have been from 
sinister motives, which supposition is strengthened by the fact 
that Cavelier borrowed, in La Salle's name, 4000 livres from 
Tonty. 

It was the intention of Cavelier and his party to repair imme- 
diately to France, and to this end they made haste to take their 
departure. Arriving at Chicago, which by this time had become 
famous as a portage, they waited a week for the storm to abate, 
before daring to venture on the lake with their canoe, when they 
started, but were soon driven back by the heavy surf. 

They now returned to Ft. St. Louis, and quartered under the 
hospitalities of Tonty, whose friendship for La Salle made him 
receive the subtle deceivers with welcome. 

The next spring, the party took advantage of the first mild 
weather to embark for Canada by the Chicago route, and from 
thence sailed for France, where they at last unbosomed them- 
selves of their terrible secret at the French court. But, long be_ 
fore this, the withered germ of French power in Texas had fall 
en under the war-club of the Indians.* 



♦The history of its destruction was furnished by the Shawanees, for which see 
Shea's Discovery of the Mississippi Valley, p. 208. 



54 Iberville and Bienville. 

The bones of La Salle lay mouldering beneath the luxuriant 
grasses of a Texas prairie, but his plans for the aggrandizement 
of New France survived his untimely death, and and were soon 
destined to be renewed by Iberville and Bienville. 

In 1699, these intrepid Frenchmen, who were born and nur- 
tured among the excitements of life in Canada, obtained com- 
mand of a small fleet, and made a French settlement on Dau- 
phin Island, off the Bay of Mobile. 

The same year they entered the mouth of the Mississippi riv- 
er, and sailing up its scroll-shaped turnings, landed in the domin- 
ions of Tonty's old friend the chief of the Bayagoulas. It will 
be remembered that he had left a letter for La Salle with him, 
when he went down the river fourteen years previously. This 
letter had been preserved by him during these years with pious 
care, and with commendable discretion he now relieved himself 
of his responsibility by giving it to Iberville. 

A permanent French colony was now established at the mouth 
of the river, out of which, a few years later, grew the city of 
New Orleans and the settlements of the famous sugar plantations 
along the river. 

This was the southern extremity of the French settlements in 
America. Canada was the northern extremity, and Chicago the 
most frequented portage between them. 

There were, however, other portages of intercommunication ; 
one by the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, another by the St. Joseph 
and Kankakee rivers, both of which had beeu traveled, the one 
by Marquette and the other by La Salle, as already related. 

The next year after Iberville and Bienville's successful settle- 
ment at the mouth of the Mississippi, the settlements of Kas- 
kaskia and Cahokia were made, and other thriving French vil- 
lages sprung up near by them a few years later. 

Yincennes, on the Wabash, was settled in 1710, and Ft. Char- 
ters, on the Mississippi, not far from Cahokia, in 1720. It was 
the strongest inland fortress in America, costing over $50,000. 

A cordon of French forts extended from Canada to New Or- 
leans, at this time, with which to cement the vast extent of New 
France together by an unbroken chain. 

That one of these forts was built at Chicago there is sufficient 
evidence, from the fact that mention is made of its existence, 
by Tonty, while on his way from Canada to the Illinois country 
in 1685, who uses the following language : "I embarked for the 
Illinois Oct. 30th, 1685, but, being stopped by the ice, I was 
obliged to leave my canee and proceed by land. After going 120 
leagues, I arrived at Ft. Chicagou, where M. de la Durantaye com- 
manded.* No record remains as to the time of its construction. 

* Tonty's Memoir, published in Hist. Coll. of Lou., vol. I, p. 67. 



The English Colonies, 55 

There was a missionary station here in 1699, where the gospel 
was dispensed to the Miamis.* There appears also to have been 
a French village here at that time, as St. Cosme speaks of a lost 
boy at the time of his passing through the place, and several 
Frenchmen turning out to hunt for him among the tall grasses. 
After thirteen days, the boy returned to the village, spent with 
hunger and fatigue, and almost insensible, f 

While these events, so auspicious to the French in the interim, 
were passing, the English colonists were at work within a very 
circumscribed compass, along the eastern fringe of the continent. 

The Massachusetts colony was composed of Puritans after the 
Cotton Mather pattern. 

The Connecticut and the New Hampshire colonies were also 
fashioned after the same model. 

The Khode Island colony was modified somewhat by the libe- 
ralism of Koger Williams, Wheelright, Yane, and Anne Hutch- 
inson. 

The Germans along the Hudson river were not unlike this 
same thrifty people of our day. 

On the Delaware were the Swedes and Fins, models of frugal- 
ity and piety. 

In Pennsylvania were the English Quakers, under the leader- 
ship of the broad-gauge brain of William Penn. 

In Virginia was the true type of English chivalry. 

The Puritans may justly be called the conscience of the nation, 
and the Yirginians, with equal propriety, the sword of the nation. 

In the Carolinas were Huguenots and Quakers, and in Geor- 
gia respectable Englishmen, not conspicuous for any tangent 
points of character, except the ambitious aims indispensable to 
American emigrants. 

No confederation or bond of union existed between these dif- 
ferent colonies, but the exploits of the French in the West were 
rapidly hastening an issue bound to unite them together in a 
bond of union which was the outgrowth of the French and In- 
dian war. 

While this issue is maturing, Chicago must slumber in obscu- 
rity. 

* Early Voyages, p. 50, published by Joel Munsel, Albany, 
f Early Voyages, pp. 56-8. 



CHAPTER IV. 

First Passage through the Detroit River — A Stone Statue found 
there — English on the Upper Lakes — Settlement of Detroit — 
The Foxes Attach the Place — Mission of Father Marquette 
at Michilimackinac — Cahokia and Kaskaskia Settled — Ft. 
Chartres — Vincennes Settled — Comparison of the English 
with the French Colonies — The Paris Convention to Establish 
the Line between the English and French in America — 
Convention at Albany — The Ohio Company — The French 
Build Forts on French Creek — Gov. Dinwiddle sends Wash- 
ington to Warn them out of the Country — The Ohio Company 
send Trent to Build a Fort where Pittsburgh now stands — 
He is driven away by the French — Washington sent to the 
Frontier — Re Attacks the French — Retreats — Builds Ft. Ne- 
cessity — The Fort taken by the French. 

Detroit stands foremost among the cities of the Northwest in 
local historic interest, although the place was unknown to the 
French even for some years after Lake Superior had been ex- 
plored to its western extremity and missions established along 
its southern waters. 

The Ottawa river of Canada, Lake Nippising, and the north- 
ern waters of Lake Huron, were the channels by which the 
great West was first reached by the French, and nearly the only 
ones used till La Salle had secured Lakes Ontario and Erie as a 
highway from Canada to the West, as told in the previous chap- 
ter. 

In the autumn of 1669, at the Indian village of Ganastogue, 
at the western extremity of Lake Ontario, two distinguished ex- 
plorers, La Salle and Joliet, met by chance. Joliet was on his 
return from a trip to the Upper Lake, as Lake Superior was then 
called, for the purpose of discovering the copper mines. In 
reaching this place from Lake Superior, he must have passed 
down the river, then without a name, now called Detroit river, 
and first called by the French " The Detroit " (The Straits). 
It is a matter of record that an old Indian village, called Teuch- 
sa Grondie, stood originally there, but no mention is made of it 
by Joliet. 



Discovery of Detroit. 57 

The next spring, 1670, two priests, Galinee and Dablon, on 
their way from Canada to the mission of Sainte Marie, which 
had been established at the Sault the previous year, landed at or 
near the present site of Detroit. The first object of interest they 
beheld was a barbarous piece of stone sculpture in the human 
form. This was quite sufficient to unbalance the equilibrium of 
the two fathers, whose zeal had been whetted into an extrava- 
gant pitch by the hardships they had encountered on their way. 
With pious indignation they fell upon the " impious device " with 
their hatchets, broke it in pieces, and hurled the fragments into 
the river.* 

The place would have been brought to light long before but 
for the Iroquois, who guarded the passage of the lower lakes 
with bull-dog tenacity, to preserve their own nation and protect 
their fur trade, f 

That a fort was built at Detroit between this time and 1687 is 
inferred fromTonty's Memoir, \ in which, while on the way down 
the lakes, he says : u The Sieur de la Forest was already gone 
with a canoe and thirty Frenchmen, and he was to wait for me 
at Detroit till the end of May." Farther along he continues: 
"We came, on the 19th of May (1687), to Ft. Detroit. We 
made some canoes of elm, and I sent one of them to Ft. St. Jo- 
seph." 

During the few years which succeeded Frontenac's recall from 
the governor's chair of Canada, La Barre and next Denonville 
supplied his place. Both of their administrations were ushered 
in with promises of great results, but terminated in utter failures. 
They had measured their strength against the Iroquois, who 
proved too much for them, both in the forum and in the field. 

Thos. Dougan was then colonial governor of New York, whose 
vigorous and ambitious policy, assisted by the Iroquois, contem- 
plated the establishment of a trading post at Michilimackinac, 
for the mutual interests of both, and, in 1687, English agents 
started up the lakes for that purpose, [ under protection of the 
Iroquois and Foxes. 

The latter held supreme sway on those waters at that time, 
and were more friendly to the English than the French, as the 

* Jesuit Relations, 1670. 

f Father Paul Raguneau, in the Jesuit Relations of 1650, uses the following 
language : 

[Translation.] " All the Algonquin nations who dwell to the west of the an- 
cient country of the Hurons, and where the faith has not yet been able to find its 
way, are people for whom we cannot have enough compassion. If it be necessary 
that the name of God be adored, and the cross be planted there, it shall be done 
in spite of all the rage of hell and the cruelty of the Iroquois, who are worse than 
the demons of hell." — Pages 3o and 31. 

% See Hist. Coll. of Lou., vol. 1, p. 69. 

U Paris Doc. III., published in Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. I, p. 229. 



58 The English on the Upper Lakes Captured. 

French had, by some misdirection, made enemies of them at 
their first interview. 

After Tont y with his men had left Detroit, as just told in his 
Memoir, as he was continuing his course along the lake shore 
toward Canada, he fell in company with Durantaye and Du Lhut, 
with their commands. 

They had in their custody thirty English prisoners, whom 
they had just captured on the shore of Lake Huron, 

Farther along in the Memoir, Tonty states that he took thirty 
more English prisoners, who were on their way to Michilimack- 
inac, under command of Major Gregory — that they had with 
them several Huron and Ottawa captives, who had been taken 
by the Iroquois and consigned to their charge — that they also 
had a " great quantity of brandy' ' with them, which Tonty con- 
gratulated himself for having taken, inasmuch as it would have 
(in his own words) "gained over our allies, and thus we should 
have all the savages and the English upon us at once." 

A war was going on at this time between the Iroquois and the 
French, of which the English probably took advantage to at- 
tempt to gain a foothold on the upper lakes. 

Before the war was ended, all Canada was overrun by the Iro- 
quois, Montreal burned, and two hundred persons captured and 
taken into the wilderness lodges of their conquerors in the pres- 
ent State of New York. 

They were treated so kindly, however, that more than half of 
them refused to return to their home in Montreal after peace had 
been made, even though the French king commanded them to 
return. 

The following September, 1689, commissioners from the New 
York and New England colonies met the Iroquois deputies at 
Albany in convention, when one of the chiefs congratulated the 
English colonists that their chain of friendship was strengthened 
by their burning of Montreal. 

" Frontenac was now restored to power in Canada, and under 
his vigorous administration the Iroquois were obliged to evacu- 
ate the French provinces, and the war was transferred to the 
territory of the English colonists, by the burning of Schenectady 
and the slaughter of its inhabitants. The original plan of this 
expedition was to capture Albany, the headquarters from which 
the English had fitted out their expedition to Michilimackinac,* 
but on their way they were informed that there was too large a 
force there for them to encounter, and they attacked Schenectady 
instead. 

Had the English scheme to establish a post at Michilimacki- 
nac proved a success, the limits of New France would have been 

* Paris Doc. IV. 



Settlement of Detroit. 59 

confined to the present limits of Canada, and the whole western 
country have been opened immediately to English colonization, 
which must have hastened its settlement at least a generation. 
But the whole plan miscarried, if not on account of Tonty's 
seizure of the brandy, at least owing to the great distance of 
the post from the English settlements and to the allied action of 
the French and western tribes against the Foxes, whose imme- 
diate protection was necessary to the English cause on the upper 
lakes. 

This English attempt to gain a foothold in the West doubtless 
stimulated the French to hasten to completion their own designs 
to accomplish the same purpose.* To this end a council was 
called at Montreal a few years later, to which the Canadian and 
western tribes were invited, nor were their ancient enemies the 
Iroquois forgotten. 

The latter now disclaimed any intention to allow either the 
French or English to erect forts on the upper waters, but the 
western tribes favored the plan, of course. Meantime the French 
had already made preparations to establish a post on the Detroit. 

Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, Lord of Bouaget and Mountde- 
sert, was on the spot, with a commission from Louis XI V., as 
commandant of Detroit. He started from Montreal in June, 
1701, with one hundred men and all the necessary appliances, 
both religious and secular, to form a colony, and the next month 
safely landed, tented upon the spot, built Ft. Pontchartrain, and 
and commenced the settlement of the place. 

The settlement was a permanent one, although for many years 
it was often reduced to the verge of ruin. The aimless charac- 
ter of the settlers was the chief cause of this, but there were 
other hindrances in the way of progress. The Iroquois looked 
with jealous eyes upon them, but not more so than did the Eng- 
lish settlements along the Hudson ; and three years after the 
settlement of Detroit, an Indian convention of the tribes bor- 
dering on the lakes was summoned to meet at Albany. \ 

Here the brains of those vacillating French allies, particularly 
the Ottawas, were temporarily turned over to the English inter- 
est, and on their return they set fire to the town, but the flames 
were soon extinguished. 

A second attempt to burn the place, while it was under com- 
mand of Tonty, met with no better success. Meantime Cadillac 
succeeded in getting some Indians from Michilimackinac and 
other places, whose friendship was of a more abiding character, 
to form a settlement near by, who acted as a sort of picket guard 
about the place. 

These consisted of Ottawas, whose village was on the river, 

* Lanman's Mich., p. 40. f Cass* Discourse. 



60 Rental of Lands around Detroit. 

above the town, and the Hurons and Pottawattomies, whose 
villages were below. Comparative safety thus secured, in 1707 
Cadillac parceled out the adjacent lands to his unambitious sub- 
jects on the following terms : 

"By the conditions of a grant, made by Cadillac, at Detroit, 
March 10th, 1707, the grantee, Francois Fafard Delorme was 
bound to pay a reserved rent of fifteen francs a year to the 
crown, for ever, in peltries, and to begin to clear and improve 
the land within three months from the date of the grant. All 
the timber was reserved to the crown, whenever it might be 
wanted for fortifications, or for the construction of boats or other 
vessels. The property of all mines and minerals was reserved 
to the crown. The privilege of hunting rabbits, hares, part- 
ridges, and pheasants, was reserved to the grantor. The gran- 
tee was bound to plant, or help to plant, a long May-pole before 
the door of the principal manor-house, on the first day of May 
in every year. All the grain raised by the grantee was to be 
carried to the mill of the manor to be ground, paying the tolls 
sanctioned by the custom of Paris. On every sale of the land 
a tax was levied ; and, before a sale, the grantee was bound to 
give information to the government, and if the government was 
willing to take the land at the price offered to the grantee, it 
was to have precedence as a purchaser. The grantee could not 
mortgage the land without the consent of the government. For 
a term of ten years, the grantee was not permitted to work, or 
cause any person to work, directly or indirectly, at the profession 
and trade of a blacksmith, locksmith, armorer, or brewer, with- 
out a permit. All effects and articles of merchandise, sent to or 
brought from Montreal, were to be sold by the grantee himself, 
or other person who, with his family, was a French resident ; 
and not by servants or clerks or foreigners or strangers. The 
grantee was forbidden to sell or trade spirituous liquors to In- 
dians. He was bound to suffer on his lands such roads as might 
be thought necessary for public use. He was bound to make 
his fences in a certain manner, and, when called upon, to assist 
in making his neighbors' fences."* 

As might be supposed, little progress could be made by the 
inhabitants, shackled as they were by such oppressive restric- 
tions, and environed by the warlike Foxes, liable at the slightest 
provocation to attack them. In May, 1712, incited by a blood- 
thirsty spirit or possibly by a promise of a reward from the Iro- 
quois or their patrons, the English colonists, they laid, as they 
supposed, secret plans to attack the place. 

The occupants of the three friendly Indian villages adjoining 
were absent, and but for the disclosures of a converted Indian 

♦Am. State Papere, Public Lands, v. I, 261. 



Settlement of Michilimackinao. 61 

of the Fox nation, the place must have been taken, for there 
was but a slender garrison to defend it. The savage disciple to 
the Catholic faith, whose newly-bred conscience impelled him to 
act the apostate to his own people, obtained an interview with 
M. Du Buison, the commandant, and revealed the secret to him 
in time to make preparation for the impending blow. 

Cadillac was now Intendant of Louisiana and busy with Cro- 
zat in a butterfly chase after supposed gold mines, and the entire 
responsibilities rested upon Du Buison. He immediately sent 
deputies to the various tribes to the south and west, whose jeal- 
ousy of the ferocious Foxes made them his ready allies. "Yes, 
we will come and defend you, and all we ask is, that you cover 
the bodies of such of us as are slain, with a little earth, to keep 
the flies away," was their reply.* 

The zealous allies came, and were received within the gates 
of the fort, and on the 13th of May the attack was commenced 
from an intrenchment hastily thrown up by the determined Fex- 
es, commanding the outworks of the French defences. To drive 
them from their position, the besieged erected a block-house 
commanding it.f 

The strife soon became desperate. For nineteen days the bat- 
tle raged, the victory alternating from one side to the other, till 
the Foxes withdrew under cover of night. They were followed, 
and the fiercest battle of the war ensued, in which the Foxes 
were routed and driven from the country to Green Bay. \ 

This danger passed, the inhabitants of Detroit basked in the 
sunshine of peace and security from further alarms, till the 
French and Indian war had spent its force along the far-off east- 
ern frontier, and an English garrison had taken quiet possession 
of the town. Then again the desolations of Pontiac's war rolled 
over their heads fiercer than ever ; but till then the peasant hab- 
itant of the place paid his annual rental, cultivated his garden 
patch, and lived a thoughtless life, like the population of other 
French towns in the wilderness solitudes of New France. 

Michilimackinac was settled more than a quarter of a century 
before Detroit. Its name is of Indian origin, the language of 
which is, The Place of the Dancing Spirits. [ It had a history 
before the white man ever visited it, of which a volume might 
be written, from the traditions of the red man. Its first settle- 
ment by the French was made about the year 1671, at which 

* Monette's Miss. Val. 

f Cass' Discourse. 

\ From Green Bay they next emigrated to Rock river, in Illinois, and remained 
till 1832, the time of the Black Hawk war. 

|| This is Schoolcraft's version. Others equally authoritative, say it meant a tur- 
tle. The discrepancy probably comes from the word having different significa- 
tions in different Indian dialects. 



62 Settlement of Cahokia, Kaakaskia, and Vincennes. 

time some converted Huron s fled to the place as a refuge of safe- 
ty from their demon-like persecutors, the Iroquois, and here the 
good Father Marquette followed them, impelled not by any 
worldly motive, but by the love of God and man, and obedience 
to the will of his patron saint, "the Blessed Virgin." 

For many years the place had no permanent settlers, but serv- 
ed as a transient stopping place for itinerating priests and erratic 
fur-traders. 

Of the little cluster of early French towns in the southern part 
of the Illinois, Cahokia was settled first, by Father Pinet and 
St. Cosme, in 1700.* Kaskaskia was settled a few months later. 
These and other smaller places close by soon became thriving 
French villages ; all the more so as they were in no danger of 
hostile invasion from any quarter. 

Ft. Charters was a substantial fortress, built of stone, with 
bastions and towers. It was finished in 1720, and would have 
stood for centuries but for the wearing away of the Mississippi 
river's east bank, on which it stood, half way between Cahokia 
and Kaskaskia. As late as 1820, much of it remained, but a few 
years later the spot on which it stood became the channel of the 
river. 

Yincennes was settled by Father Mermet in 1710. f This was 
an isolated French post, buried in the depths of the gigantic for- 
ests of the lower Wabash. Here the French lived and grew in 
an atmosphere of Indian social life, till the fires of the American 
Revolution, kindled afar off, soon came to their doors, as will 
appear in a succeeding chapter. 

Sharp lines of contrast in religien and government, between 
the English and French colonies of America, were everywhere 
visible. The fairest portions of the country were in the hands 
of the French, and almost the entire Indian population of the 
vallies of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence were their allies. 
Throughout this immense territory, including also the entire 
lake country, the flag of France waved in security among the 
confiding natives, without the least apprehension of future dan- 
ger from its patronage. They cultivated their scanty patches of 
corn, just enough to keep them in hominy, and in the winter 
gathered in a rich harvest of furs, wherewith to spread their 
tents with mats and to barter with the French traders for guns, 
kettles, knives, hatchets, vermilion with which to paint their 
faces, and the inevitable whisky. 

* A tract, reprinted by Shea in 1859, entitled *« Relation ou Journal du voyage 
du R. P. Gravier, de la Compagnie de Jesus en 1700 de puis le pays des Illinois 
jusq'a l'embouchere du Mississippi, Ecrit ou Pere de Lambecville et envoye du 
fort de Mississippi a 17 lieues de sa decharge dans le Golfe ou Mer Mexique le 16 
Fevrier, 1 701," is the authority from which the above is taken. 

f Law's History of Vincennes, p. 12. 



Contrast between the English and French Colonies. 63 

The fur trade was the great interest of the country, and those 
engaged in it were men of no ordinary capacity for accom- 
plishing large results with slender means. Their every-day rou- 
tine was a heavy strain upon their physical as well as mental 
powers, as far as sharp bargain and sale was concerned. Yet 
they were but servile instruments in the hands of their superiors. 
The same might with equal propriety have been said of the en- 
tire French population of the country, who lived by industry, 
if the average of a day's labor in a week could be called such. 

Farming was of but secondary interest, and but few of those 
engaged in it owned the land they tilled, nor had they the least 
desire to own it. 

The French villages in the Illinois country, as well as at most 
other places, were each under the government of a priest, who, 
besides attending to their spiritual wants, dispensed justice to 
them, and from his decisions there was no appeal. Though this 
authority was absolute, the records of the times show no abuse 
of it, but, on the contrary, prove that it was always used with 
paternal care. It could hardly be otherwise in their wilderness 
isolation, uniting, as it did, the interests of all on one common 
level. Nevertheless, it was a modified form of feudalism, sub- 
ordinating everything to the will of the Church and State com- 
bined, and could not have been perpetuated into the maturity of 
the State with the same happy results that followed its begin- 
ning. 

The double power, thus gathering force and keeping pace 
with the growth of the State, was too transcendant for the varied 
and multiplied wants of individual enterprise. But the French 
peasant did not look ahead so far as this. He was contented, 
because his mind was dwarfed within the narrow compass of 
present necessities, and his old-fashioned but gaudy attire, as well 
as his daily bread, came with a small effort. Without ambition, 
and almost without temptation to offend against his fellows, he 
had little to trouble his conscience, or, if he had anything, the 
burden was readily lifted by his father confessor.* 

Turning from this picture to that of the English colonies, is 
like leaping over an unbridged chasm. Here two positive ele- 
ments rose into prominence, like indigenous trees in a forest. 
The most potent of these was the Puritan element. When the 
Protestant religion was first introduced into England in 1528, its 
proselytes, though not men of deeper thoughts than those of 
Bavaria, Wirtemburg, and Moravia, yet were more demonstra- 
tive and aggressive than their German brethren, and, in 1550, 
the new faith had grown into formidable proportions. In 1563, 

* Raynal's Hist. East and West Indies ; Monette's Miss. Valley ; Martin's Lou- 
isiana. 



64 The Limits of New France. 

an open issue was taken with the established church, and U m 
that day till the Puritans planted their feet on the rock of Ply- 
mouth, there was no truce to religious agitation in England. 
This rock proved a safety-valve for the preservation of the old 
English Church and State, united as they were into one marvel- 
ous tower of strength, in defiance of the Puritan element. 

Happy was it for the world that Plymouth Kock became the 
retort which concentrated the elastic force of Puritanism and 
economised it for the use of America, there to grow up with the 
new State, modified by the public policy of government better 
suited to the wants of the master spirits of that age, because it 
was one of their own making. 

When these fugitives crossed the Atlantic, they brought with 
them the true philosopher's stone. They represented the ele- 
ments of national^ progress on a grander scale than had ever en- 
tered into the imagination of a knight of a baronial castle. Sci- 
ence, literature, and exalted ideas of liberty, were everywhere 
diffused and written upon the immaculate tablet which was open- 
ed before them beyond the Atlantic. 

The other element of American power was planted at James- 
town. Here the acknowledged representative of the English- 
man, supreme m his convictions of propriety, planted his stand- 
ards, and became the chivalric representative of liberty in its 
broadest sense. 

Both the Jamestown and Plymouth elements rapidly grew into 
power, and, forgetting the old religious issues that had made 
enemies of their fathers, united together and subordinated the 
German and the Swedish colonies to their rule. Along the 
Atlantic coast the various colonies, extending from the New 
Hampshire colony to the Georgia colony, were under English 
protection, and held their lands by virtue of English charters, 
but between each no confederation had ever been thought of. 

Up to this time the colonists had manifested but little concern 
about the interior, except the Yirginia colony, who had pushed 
across the Alleghenies, and founded some trading stations on 
the head-waters of the Ohio river. 

The great question to be settled was, Where should the line 
be run between New France and the lands of the English colo- 
nists in America? From its magnitude, it had already attracted 
the attention of the powers of Europe, who were on the watch 
lest their balance of power should be thrown out of equilibrium 
by too great a share of the American continent falling into the 
hands of either France or England. Accordingly, by the treaty 
of Aix la Ohapelle, in 1748, which hushed Europe to peace after 
thirty years of war, it was provided that the line should be estab- 
lished by commissioners appointed by the sovereigns of the two 
respective nations. In 1752, these commissioners met in Paris, 



The Convention at Albany. 65 

but out of the tangle of old English charters, French forms of 
possession, etc., no result could be reached which satisfied the 
ambitious designs of both countries, and the question was left to 
be settled by future destiny. To control this destiny, prepara- 
tions for war were now made on both sides. 

The French strengthened their forts, particularly Louisburg 
on the coast of Cape Breton, Quebec, and Crown Point on the 
west bank of Lake Champlain.* 

The English, on their part, called a convention of their thir- 
teen colonies in America, to meet at Albany in June, 1753, for 
the purpose of concerting measures of defense. Here were as- 
sembled the representatives of the crown, sapient and cautious, 
but not more so than the deputies of her trans- Atlantic children. 
The crown representatives refused to acknowledge any united 
action of the colonies, lest this union might at some future day 
become too powerful for the public welfare, while the colonies 
refused to sign a compact giving the mother country the right to 
tax them even for defensive purposes. No logic on either side 
could break through this dead-lock, and the convention adjourn- 
ed without accomplishing any result. 

Meantime, the issue was hastening to a crisis on the western 
frontier. As early as 1748, Conrad Weiser (a noted interpreter 
at Indian treaties) had been on the head- waters of the Ohio river 
as agent for the Ohio Company, then forming. A trading sta- 
tion at Logstown, eighteen miles below the fork of the Ohio, 
was then established by this company, which was composed of 
Yirginians, among whom were Lawrence and Augustine, broth- 
ers of George Washington. Half a million acres of land ware 
granted them by the crown of England, for purposes of coloni- 
zation. Two other companies were also chartered, for similar 
purposes, the same year. 

Soon as the French learned of this, Gallisoniere, Governor of 
Canada, determined also to assert the French claim to the coun- 
try along the Ohio, and the next year, 1749, sent Capt. Louis 
Celoron to the present site of Erie, Fa., with orders to proceed 
thence to the head of a small creek eighteen miles distant, and 
follow down its banks to the Allegheny river, and down this 
stream to the Ohio river, burying leaden plates along the route, 
as monuments of French possession west of this line. This done, 
he sent a letter to Gov. Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, to warn the 
English not to trespass beyond it. 

The same year, two more English trading posts were estab- 
lished in the West — one on the Great Miami river, called Lora- 
mie's store, and the other on the Maumee. 

♦This fort had been built by the French in 1731. It was within the acknowl- 
edged limits of English territory, but had been held ever since by the French, as 
a standing menace to the Hudson river settlements, aggressive and defiant. 



66 The French Capture the English Trading Posts. 

The succeeding year, 1750, Christopher Gist, an intrepid fron- 
tiersman and surveyor, started on a tour of exploration from the 
head- waters of the Potomac, late in October. Pushing boldly 
into the savage glooms of the forest west of the fork of the Ohio, 
he crossed the Scioto and visited the Indian towns on the Miami ; 
but he was not the first Englishman on the disputed ground. 
George Crogan and Andrew Montour, both celebrated for fron- 
tier accomplishments, were then among the various Indian tribes, 
to influence them in favor of the English and secure their trade. 
Mr. Gist conferred with both these men, who warned him against 
visiting certain localities where the French interest prevailed. 
But there was among the Indians a division of sentiment as to 
whose cause they should espouse in the coming issue,* and never 
were a people more perplexed to know on which side their inter- 
est laid. 

While Mr. Gist was making this tour, news came to him of 
the capture of several Englishmen by the French along the north- 
ern waters of the Ohio. 

On the Muskingum he made the acquaintance of a white wo- 
man who had been captured from the New England States at the 
age of ten years. She was now over fifty, the wife of an Indian 
and mother of several children. She had a vivid recollection of 
her childhood home, of the religious turn of the Puritan mind, 
and was much astonished at the wickedness she had seen prac- 
ticed by the white people when they came among the Indians, f 

Mr. Gist crossed the Ohio river and returned home, in May, 
1751, by the way of the Kentucky river settlements, which were 
then in their infancy. 

Early the next year the French visited the country in sufficient 
force to capture the English trading post on the Miami. A des- 
perate defence, however, was made, fourteen of the assailants 
having been killed. The traders were taken to Canada. Seve- 
ral English families lived at this post, which made it the begin- 
ning of a settlement as well as a trading post. The T wight wees 
or Miamis helped to defend the place, while the Ottawas and 
Chippewas assisted the French in taking it. 

While these acts of hostility were transpiring on the Miami, 
the Ohio Company were convening a council at Logstown with 
the Indians, for the purpose of confirming the old treaty of Lan- 
caster, by virtue of which large tracts of land on the Ohio had 
been ceded to this company by the Six Nations. J Through the 
influence of Montour, the treaty was reluctantly, on the part of 

* The Miamis or Twightwees were friendly to the English, and portions of the 
Six Nations and Delawares, who had emigrated to the Ohio country from the East. 

f Journal of Gist, published in Pownall's Topography, London, 1776. 

X The treaty of Lancaster was a cession of Ohio lands to the English by the Six 
Nations, by virtue of their conquest of the tribes occupying said lands. 



Washington's Mission. 67 

the Indians, confirmed ; bnt the war which soon followed swept 
away all these distinctions as to land titles. 

The French, meantime, according to their nsnal practice, early 
in 1753 commenced building forts in the disputed territory. 
The first one, named Presque Isle, was built where Erie, Pa., 
now stands. From this place they cut a wagon road eighteen 
miles southwardly, through the forest, to a small lake near the 
present site of Waterford. Here they built another fort, which they 
named Le JBceuf ; thence, following down the stream of which 
this was the fountain-head, to where it empties into the Alle- 
gheny river, they built a third fort, which they named Yenango, 
after an old Indian town on the same spot. These forts were on 
the same line along which Capt. Celoran had buried leaden 
plates tour years previously. 

Governor Dinwiddie, of the Yirginia colony, always tenacious 
in the defence of English rights, beheld these French approaches 
to the Ohio with deep concern. Here was the pivot on which 
hung the fate of the West and the then limitless interior. To 
secure at least a foothold in it, he determined to send a messen- 
ger to the French, to warn them that the English claimed the 
country on the head-waters of the Ohio, and request them to 
leave it. 

George Washington, then twenty-one years old, was selected 
for this mission. He had eight attendants, the two principal of 
whom were Christopher Gist, the surveyor already mentioned, 
and Jacob Van Braum, an intelligent German, who afterwards 
acted as interpreter at the surrender of Ft. Necessity. He left 
Wills Creek, the present site of Cumberland, on the loth of No- 
vember, 1753. At Logstown dwelt a famous Six Nation chief, 
named Half-King, who was a friend to Washington, and whose 
jealousy of the French made him an ally of the English. Deem- 
ing his counsel, arid especially his influence, indispensable to the 
success of the enterprise, Washington proceeded immediately to 
his headquarters and obtained an interview with him. Whatever 
else may be the frailties of Indian character, hasty diplomacy is 
not one of them, as Washington learned. Three days of his 
precious time were consumed in attendance on his majesty. The 
ceremonials of the council over, Half-King entered heartily into 
Washington's plans, and, with three other chiefs, accompanied 
him to Ft. Le Bceuf, the headquarters of M. Le Guarduer St. 
Pierre, the commander of the French forces. 

Their route lay northward, through the forests, to the mouth 
of Le Bceuf Creek, now called French Creek, thence up its banks 
to Ft. Le Bceuf. On arriving at the place they met the com- 
mander. He was an accomplished and scholarly old knight, and 
notwithstanding the rustic appearance of the beardless youth be- 
fore him, who came with a message warning him to leave, he 



68 The Perilous Return. 

received him with deserved attention ; for nobility of character 
cannot be disguised by a rough exterior in the estimation of one 
who possesses it himself. During the two days Washington 
spent at the place, the hospitalities of the fort were extended to 
him with that hearty good-fellowship for which a Frenchman is 
conspicuous. 

As might be supposed, the mission was fruitless of results, for 
the French commander did not allow himself to lose sight of the 
interests of France, and, to that end, plied his arts of pleasing 
to Half-King also. 

This was a matter of no small annoyance to Washington, 
whose apprehensions being aroused that he might win him over 
to the friendship of the French by the influence of his free wines, 
he openly accused him of such an intention ; but the complacent 
diplomat silenced these charges with fresh sallies of politeness, 
and thus the matter ended. 

When Washington was about taking leave, the generous 
Frenchman presented him a canoe well filled with provisions, 
among which the wine was not forgotten. 

Washington with Gist started down French Creek with the 
canoe, giving orders to Yan Braum to meet him at Yenango, its 
mouth, with the men and horses accompanying the expedition. 
The canoe was now abandoned, Half-King and the other chiefs 
wishing to remain here. Washington and his party took leave of 
them and started down the west bank of the Allegheny river. 

The poor horses were so spent with hunger and fatigue, that 
their progress through the trackless forests was slow, and Wash- 
ington determined to set out on foot in advance with Gist, and 
leave the emaciated beasts in charge of Yan Braum and the rest 
of the party, to follow as fast as they could travel. 

It was now December, and the ground was covered with a 
sprinkling of snow ; but both of the travelers were accustomed 
to "life in the bush," and, making light of their forest march, 
slept away each day's fatigue enveloped in their blankets, each 
night, in the open air of winter. 

On their way, at two different times, they encountered a faith- 
less Indian, whose pretended friendships were abruptly broken 
off by attempts to shoot them. Happily, each time, the ball 
missed its aim, though at one of these treacherous attacks only 
fifteen paces intervened between the savage and Gist, his intend- 
ed victim. This danger passed, they soon arrived at the place 
where they wished to cross the Allegheny river. Here they 
worked all day to make a raft, having only " a very poor hatch- 
et," says Washington, in his journal, to make it with. ^ Just be- 
fore dark, they launched it and started for the opposite shore ; 
but when the current was reached, heavy masses of ice came 
floating down stream with such force as to threaten to sink their 



Both French <md English Forts Built. 69 

frail bark. To prevent this, Washington thrust out a setting- 
pole against the moving masses of ice, when, by some misdirect- 
ed strain, he was hurled into the water. He soon regained the 
raft, half-paralyzed by his wintry bath ; and now the problem 
was, how to gain the opposite shore. This was impossible, and 
they floated down with the current, till an island, desolate but 
merciful, caught them from the dangerous toils of the Allegheny. 
Here they spent the night. The cold was so intense that Gist's 
feet were frozen in the morning, and he could hardly walk. A 
solid bridge of ice had formed, over which they passed to the 
eastern shore, and the river was crossed. 

Washington now assisted his disabled companion along the 
rugged way, till the trading establishment of a Mr. Frazier was 
reached, a few miles below, and here they rested three days. 
Thence Washington proceeded to the settlements, reaching Wills 
Creek January 6th, 1754. 

The message he brought from the French commander, refus- 
ing to leave the country unless ordered to do so by the Marquis 
Du Quesne, Governor of Canada, was handed to Governor Din- 
widdie. 

The latter had not been idle during the interval of suspense. 
He had appealed to Governor Hamilton, of the Pennsylvania 
colony, who in turn used his utmost exertions to awaken his con- 
stituents to the importance of the subject, and to this end sum- 
moned an extra session of the Assembly at Philadelphia; but 
this body were divided in opinion as to whether the French were 
invading the country belonging to the English crown, and, un- 
der the inspiration of the teachings of William Penn and the 
Quaker doctrines of peace, suggested that the country in ques- 
tion belonged to neither the English nor the French, but to the 
Indians. This was the underlying sentiment by which supplies 
were withheld. 

The New York colony, though more remote from the scene, 
voted five thousand pounds. 

With the advice of the British Secretary of State, Governor 
Dinwiddie now determined to take decisive steps to secure a 
foothold on the Ohio by building a fort at the fork where Pitts- 
burgh now stands. 

It was proposed to raise two companies for this purpose, as 
volunteers, one of which was to be raised by Washington, and 
the other by a Mr. Trent, a noted frontier ranger. 

In the spring of 1754, the French line from Presque Isle to the 
mouth of Le Boeuf Creek (French Creek) became a bustling thor- 
oughfare, along which French scouts with their tawny allies were 
constantly passing. Ft. Yenango was finished at the confluence 
of this creek with the Allegheny river early in April ; but while 
thesft forest wilds gleamed with the glitter of French bayonets 



70 The English Driven Away from the Ohio. 

and echoed with war-whoops, a quieter and more enduring force 
was gathering to the rescue, from the Yirginia frontier. 

Already the Ohio Company had sent a number of men to 
make a fort and settlement at the fork, among whom were a few 
families. 

This advance, consisting of a caravan of forty-one men and 
seventeen horses, loaded to their utmost capacity, had been met by 
Washington on his return. Meanwhile, the military spirit gath- 
ered force as the issue appeared to approach a crisis, and it was 
determined to raise six companies instead of two, and to give 
the chief command to Joshua Fry, an able officer, while Wash- 
ington was to hold the second. 

Thirty cannon and eighty barrels of gunpowder had been re- 
ceived from the king of England, for the defense of western 
forts. All haste was now made to send forward the forces in 
time to succor the little band who had gone before them, under 
Trent ; but the heavy roads of spring and the Allegheny moun- 
tains, were barriers which bade defiance to speed ; and, while 
these preparations were on foot, a heavy French force, under 
Contrecoeur, glided down French Creek and the Allegheny riv- 
er, arriving at the strategic spot on the 17th of April. 

Here he found the Yirginians scarring the leaf-clad soil with 
the foundations for a fort. Trent had returned east to hurry 
forward reinforcements, and ensign Ward stood in his place. 
The little band obeyed Contrecoeur' s summons to leave, backed 
up as it was by nearly a thousand bayonets. The men gathered 
up their camp equipage, during which preparation for their re- 
treat Ward took supper with the French commander, by special 
invitation. This over, the Yirginians soon buried them- 
selves in the forest depths, taking their course up the banks of 
the Monongahela, and left the French masters of the situation. 
The latter immediately commenced the erection of a fort, which 
they named Duquesne, in honor of the Governor of Canada. 

Washington was now at the head of a small band of back- 
woodsmen, armed with axes, about to hew a path through the 
forest for the artillery to follow. The news of the surrender of 
Ward's company reached him at Wills Creek. Continuing to 
press forward, he reached Great Meadows, a place about fifty 
miles east of the new French fort at the fork, on the 27th of 
May. 

A few miles west of this place, Mr. Gist had settled, the year 
before, with the intention of making it a permanent home, and 
still maintained his position amidst the clamors of impending 
war. Hearing of the arrival of Washington, he visited his camp 
and gave him information of a body of French under Jumon- 
ville, stationed on the waters of Eed Sandstone Creek, hard by. 

Half-King, the still faithful old Iroquois chief, at the head of 



. Surrender of Ft. Necessity. 71 

a few braves, also came and offered their services to Washing- 
ton. He was now far advanced into the wilds, with the Alle- 
gheny mountains between him and any hope of reinforcements 
or subsistence, with an. enemy four times outnumbering his force 
ready to attack him ; but he hesitated not to commence the at- 
tack. Half-King led the way, and he surprised Jumonville, un- 
der cover of night, and took twenty-one prisoners after killing 
ten men, among whom was Jumonville himself. Washington 
lost one man killed. 

As might be supposed, this opening of hostilities inflamed the 
resentment of the French to the last degree, as the first acts of 
positive hostilities always are made the most of to tone up the 
vindictive spirit of the soldiery on both sides, in any impending 
war. The French called the killing of Jumonville assassination. 
Washington now held his advanced position, contenting him- 
self with watching the movements of the French, till the 28th 
of June. At this time, he was in Gist's house, and learning that 
a heavy French force were advancing against him, he commenc- 
ed a retreat. Having reached Great Meadows, July 1st, in con- 
sequence of the scarcity of provisions, he concluded to intrench 
himself and await an attack. On the 3d, the advance of the 
French were seen at 11 o'clock a. m., nine hundred strong. 

The positions of the assailants were quickly taken, and a de- 
structive fire was opened upon Ft. Necessity (the name Washing- 
ton had given his hastily-built stockade). The fire was returned 
with all the obstinate courage of backwoodsmen, but their be- 
siegers were beyond its reach, and the only effect it produced 
was to win the admiration of the foe. 

At 8 o'clock in the evening, while a heavy rain was pouring 
down, the firing ceased, and a signal for a parley was sent to 
the beleaguered camp from De Villiers, the French commander. 
Many of Washington's men were wounded and he was out of 
provisions. Surrender was therefore his only recourse left. 
The terms were generous and worthy the gallantry of a French 
captain.* Washington was allowed to depart with drums beat- 
ing, with the honors of war, taking everything with them except 
the artillery. He was to give up the prisoners taken May 28th, 
and no more fortifications were to be erected west of the moun- 
tains. Captain Jacob Yan Braum and Kobert Stobo* were to be 
given up to the French, as hostages to secure the fulfillment of 
the conditions. The campaign had miscarried and the French 
were now in heavy force on the head-waters of the Ohio. 

On the 4th of July succeeding, 1754, another convention was 



* De Villiers, who was brother of the slain Jumonville, said that, on beholding 
the wretched condition of Washington's men, after so desperate a defence, pity 
disarmed his feelings of resentment. 



72 Peace Proposals from France. 

called at Albany, and commissioners from each of the thirteen 
colonies agreed among themselves on a general plan of defence, 
the Connecticut colony alone dissenting. Benjamin Franklin 
was the moving spirit of this convention, and proposed to carry 
the war into the interior with a vigorous hand. But nothing 
could be done to rescue the country occupied by the French till 
the mother country had declared her policy, by substantial aid 
to help beat back the French. 

Conscious that this would be done in season for the next year's 
campaign, Gov. Dinwiddie took no immediate steps to recover 
the lost ground on the Ohio, and, as a prudential measure to 
prevent rivalry as to rank among the officers already commis- 
sioned, when new volunteers should enlist, he reorganized the 
companies in service, so as to leave no officer in command of a 
higher rank than captain. Washington now sent in his resigna- 
tion and returned to his home at Mount Yernon. 

The Ohio frontier was now quiet. The Assembly of Pennsyl- 
vania were still firm in their policy of peace, but in the New 
England and New York colonies, a plan was proposed to seize 
upon Crown Point, but not attempted ; but the line of Kenne- 
bec, east of which was the French settlement of Acadia, was 
fortified. 

No declaration of war had yet been made. On the contrary, 
the English and French courts were, to all outward appearances, 
on the most friendly terms ; but both countries were preparing 
for war. 

January, 1755, opened with peace proposals from France, by 
which she offered, as an ultimatum, that the French should re- 
tire west of the Ohio and the English east of the Alleghenies. 

This offer was considered by England till the 7th of March, 
when she agreed to accept it on condition that the French 
would destroy all their forts on the Ohio and its branches. The 
French, after twenty days, refused to do this.* But while the 
fruitless negotiations were pending, both sides were sending sol- 
diers to America. 

* Plain Facts, p. 52. 



CHAPTER Y. 

General Braddock arrives in America — Plan of the First Cam- 
paign — Baron Dieskau reaches Canada — Braddock marches 
against Ft. Duquesne — His Defeat — Expedition to Acadia 
— Shirley starts to take Ft. Niagara — Johnson's Campaign 
on the shores of Lake George — Defeat of Dieskau — Lord 
Loudon appointed Commander-in-Chief of the English for- 
ces — Gen. Montcalm appointed to command the French forces 
— English and French Policy and Diplomacy — Montcalm 
takes Oswego — London's Expedition starts to attack Louis- 
burg — Ft. William Henry taken by Montcalm — London re- 
called and Gen. Abercrombie put in his place — Louisburg 
taken by Admiral Boscawen — Gen. Abercrombie attacks Ti- 
conderoga — Gen. Bradstreet takes Ft. Frontenac — Gen. 
Forbes* Expedition against Ft. Duquesne — Mission of Chris- 
tian Frederic Post — Ft. Duquesne Evacuated and taken pos- 
session of by Forbes — Gen. Abercrombie recalled and Gen. 
Amherst put in his place — Ft. Niagara taken by Gen. John- 
son — Ticonderoga and Crown Point Evacuated — Quebec ta- 
ken by Gen. Wolfe — Canada and the West given up to the 
English. 

The spring of 1755 opened with warlike preparations on a 
grand scale. Gen. Braddock had landed in Virginia on the 20th 
of February with two regiments, numbering 500 each. Alex- 
andria was his headquarters, and here gathered the leading mil- 
itary spirits of the various colonies, prominent among whom 
were iJinwiddie of Virginia, Shirley of Massachusetts, Johnson 
of New York (afterward Sir William Johnson), and Benjamin 
Franklin of Pennsylvania. The approaching campaign was soon 
planned out. 

The first and most important thing to be done was to take Ft. 
Duquesne. This work Braddock assigned to himself. Gen. 
Johnson was to attack the French posts on Lake Champlain. and 
to Gen. Shirley was charged the reduction of Ft. Niagara, at the 
outlet of Niagara river, on Lake Ontario, while Gen. Monckton 
was to invade French Acadia, in Nova Scotia. The three latter 
expeditions were to be composed of provincial troops, except a 



74 Braddock Crosses the Alleghenies. 

few British marines destined to co-operate with the land forces 
in the invasion of Acadia. 

The French had not been tardy in preparations for the war. 
Early in the spring, their forces, under command of Baron Dies- 
kau, reached Canada, and began to lay plans to defend the far- 
off wilderness posts which guarded the portals to New France. 

Braddock had distinguished himself as a tactician in English 
warfare, but his machine-like way of manoeuvring armies in Eu- 
rope proved ineffectual in the scouting style of warfare which 
the savages of America had long since taught both the French 
and the Anglo frontierers. 

At the first onset his captiousness was aroused by the difficul- 
ties in the way of getting transportation for the army, and, had 
not Benjamin Franklin come to the rescue, he might not have 
been able tojbegin his march till midsummer. The place of ren- 
dezvous was the present site of Cumberland, where his army 
was gathered about the middle of May. Besides his own regi- 
ments, he was reinforced by two independent companies from 
New York, under command of Capt. Gates — the destined hero 
of Saratega — and the Yirginia regiments originally under com- 
mand of Joshua Fry (now deceased). Washington, who had 
retired to private life at the close of the campaign of the previous 
year, was invited to take a position on his staff, and accepted it, 
under the title of colonel.* 

They crossed the Alleghenies by the road which the Ohio 
Company had made two years before, and on the 8th of July 
reached the Monongahela, at a point but fifteen miles from Ft. 
Duquesne. This was the advance of the main body, consisting 
of the two English regiments and a part of the Virginia forces, 
the lesser part of the army following after, by slow marches, 
with the heavy baggage, under command of Col. Dunbar. 

Contrecoeur, the commander of Ft. Duquesne, had been ap- 
prised of his approach, by means of his Indian scouts, and, 
alarmed at the formidable appearance and number of the inva- 
ders, thought only of flight, and for that purpose ordered out 
the boats, in readiness to descend the Ohio river. But, during 
this trepidation, a bold counselor came to his relief, named Beau- 
jeu,f asking consent to waylay the English while yet in the 
thickets of the Monongahela. It was granted ; but to induce 
the Indians to enlist in the desperate enterprise required con- 



*Said Benjamin Franklin to Braddock, on the eve of his march, *' The only 
danger I apprehend, of obstruction to your march, is from the ambuscades of the 
Indians." "He smiled at my ignorance," continued Franklin, " and replied : 
' These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw militia, but upon 
the king's regular troops, sir, it is impossible they should make an impression.' " 
— Autobiography of Franklin. 

f Nephew to him who, in 1685, had deserted La Salle on the coast of Texas. 



His Defeat. 75 

summate skill in savage war practice. At first they flatly refus- 
ed, but appealing to their chivalry by saying he would go alone, 
they all followed him with a yell of admiration that toned up 
their confidence to the required pitch. 

Taking their course up the Monongahela, they soon drew near 
the locality of the destined ambuscade, when, with noiseless 
footstep, each proceeded to his separate place of concealment 
beside the road over which Braddock was soon to pass. At one 
o'clock, his advance, led by Col. Gage, (afterward Gen. Gage, 
of Boston memory), came within close range, when the silence 
of the forest was broken by a murderous fire into his ranks. It 
was returned with the usual courage of British soldiers, and not 
without effect, for Beaujeu was killed on the spot. Dumas, the 
second in command, now took his place. A tempest of bullets 
met the English in front and flank. Gage fell back, and although 
Braddock, with the courage of a lion, dashed to the front, com- 
manding order, confusion was inevitable. Three horses were 
shot under him in this fruitless labor. No attempt was made by 
him to charge into the thicket which concealed the foe, but 
Washington, at the head of a few of his backwoods comrades, 
left their ranks and fought from covert positions, till a panic had 
siezed upon the English soldiers, and they fled in confusion. 

Here young "Washington won his first laurels. Ever in the 
front, he had two horses shot under him and some shots through 
his clothes, and at last covered the retreat of the British with 
admirable skill. Braddock was mortally wounded ; 36 British 
officers were killed and 37 wounded, among whom was Col. 
Gage ; 715 privates were killed or wounded. The French and 
Indian loss, all told, was less than 50. The fugitives made all 
haste to Dunbar's camp, where a day of turmoil was spent in 
arranging for their long retreat. The baggage was set fire to, 
after reserving provisions enough to last them on their way back, 
and the discomfitted soldiers resumed their retreat to Virginia, 
there to tell the tale of their humiliation. 

While this disastrous attempt to wrest the portals to the West 
from the French was in progress, far in the East, on the bleak 
coast of Nova Scotia, the New England plow-boys were striking 
a fatal blow against the French possessions of Acadia. This 
settlement had been made in 1604, three years before that of 
Jamestown. In 1613, it had been invaded by Argall, of the 
Jamestown colony, and, from that day forward, an almost un- 
ceasing border warfare had existed between the English colonists 
and the Acadians, to detail which would fill a volume. The 
fleet entrusted with this expedition sailed from Boston on the 
20th of May, under the general command of Monckton, as pro- 
posed ; but the provincials, 2000 in number, designed as land 
forces, had been raised by John Winslow, of Massachusetts, and 



76 The Acadiam Transported. 

insisted on being led by him, which request was grantedby Gov. 
Shirley. 

The whole country belonged to the English by treaty stipula- 
tions, except Cape Breton island, but the Acadians had erected 
several forts within its boundaries, under the impression that it 
would ultimately fall into the lap of France. These forts were 
easily taken by the invaders, and Acadia became a conquered 
province. Now came the perplexing question, what to do with 
the inhabitants. Says Haliburton, "They were not British sub- 
jects, inasmuch as they had refused to take the oath of alle- 
giance, and therefore could scarcely be considered rebels. 
They were not prisoners of war, because they had been suffered 
for nearly half a cenutry to retain their possessions, and their 
neutrality had been accepted in lieu of their allegiance." With 
all, however, they were an offense to the New Englanders. 
Their civilization had been made of more elastic materials than 
the tight-twisted woof of Puritanism. Indeed, no great chasm 
need be bridged over between them and their red allies the In- 
dians, whom they had armed to fight the English colonists, to 
bring them together on a plane of equality. The colonists were 
full of bitterness against them on account of old scores, and now 
their day of vengeance had come. A proclamation was issued 
for them to assemble in their churches — men, women, and child- 
ren. The mandate was obeyed. A solid phalanx of soldiers 
environed them, and thence they were marched between two 
rows of fixed bayonets on board the English transports. The 
sails were spread, and the last sight of their evergreen shores 
soon vanished forever from their view, amid the smoke of their 
burning houses. The number thus taken was 7000. They were 
distributed among the English colonists, where most of them 
died from disease, but the last remnant of them, assisted by the 
Quakers, crossed the Alleghenies after the war was over, and 
floated down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers on barges, to the 
French settlements' of New Orleans. Never were pilgrims 
treated with more compassion than they were by the generous 
inhabitants of the place. A tract of land was given them on 
the river bank, on which they settled, and some of their descend- 
ants still live there.* Whatever maybe the apology for this 
harsh decree, the maxim follows that — it is dangerous to be neu- 
tral. 

As might be supposed, the laurels earned by this invasion, 
tarnished as they were by its closing scenes, had no weight in 
the question at issue. The French held the West and every av- 
enue to it with a firm grip. 

After the Acadian expedition had got under way, Gen. Shir- 

* Charlevoix, Raynal, and Haliburton, are the authorities from which this ac- 
count is taken. 



Dieskau Marches against Johnson, 77 

ley, in accordance with the original design of Braddock, set 
himself about raising new troops to operate against Ft. Niagara. 
It was late in the season before his army was ready to start, and 
by the time they had made their way up the Mohawk valley and 
across the wilds to the mouth of the Oswego river, it was late in 
the autumn. His route from this point was to be taken along 
the southern shore of Lake Ontario, by whale boats, but the 
lake was too boisterous for this. Here he waited thirteen days for 
the storm to abate, during which time his Indian allies, on whom 
he had placed great dependence for success, deserted, and the 
lake was yet too rough for safe navigation. The season was now 
so far advanced that he wisely deemed it imprudent to advance 
farther on a mission so dangerous, especially as the French and 
Indians were so elated with their victory over Braddock, that a 
countless host of savages would rally around their standard at 
Niagara. 

Before returning, he planned the construction of two forts to 
be erected at the mouth of the river, and left a part of his com- 
mand, under Gen. Mercer, to build and garrison them. 

We come now to the last of the four expeditions planned for 
the first year's campaign in the war, of which Gen. Johnson 
had the charge. 

At the southern extremity of Lake Champlain, a narrow but 
deep and almost currentless strait invites the boatman along its 
rugged curves, till he finds himself, after a few miles rowing, on 
the shining waters of Lake George. Its fern-clad headlands, 
now the study of landscape sketchers and the inspiration of po- 
ets, have in times past been slippery with human blood, and 
every cove indenting its shore has been the hiding-place of war 
parties crouching for their prey. For a century, the war-whoop, 
the crack of the rifle, and the groan of the victim, were the oft- 
repeated sounds that rung from shore to shore over its placid 
waters. At the head of this lake Gen. Johnson's army lay en- 
camped, leisurely making preparations to attack Crown Point, 
on the west bank of Lake Champlain. 

Baron Dieskau had already formed a plan to make a descent 
on Oswego, but, learning of Johnson's intentions, he changed 
this plan and made a hasty march from the waters of Lake Cham- 
plain, through the forests which environ its south-eastern banks, 
with a view of surprising him. On the 7th of September, news 
came to Johnson that the French were approaching the fort 
where Col. Blanchard lay encamped with his New Hampshire 
militia, on the banks of the Hudson, about thirty miles distant. 
The anxious hours wore on till midnight, when a message came 
in breathless haste, and informed Johnson that Dieskau was ad- 
vancing upon his camp instead of Blanchard' s. A council of 
war was immediately held, and it was determined to send a force 



78 His Defeat. 

of 1200 men, among whom were 200 Iroquois Indians, to meet 
him in the forests and check his advance, till fortifications could 
be erected. Early the next morning they took up their march, 
under Col. Williams, leader of the provincials, and Hendricks, 
chief of the Mohawks, leader of the Indians. An hour passed, 
and the sound of fire-arms, mufiled through the forest foliage, 
came to the ears of Johnson and his men. It suddenly grew 
louder, which showed that the French were driving this advance 
before them. Another force, of 300 men, were sent to cover 
their retreat. At 11 o'clock, the defeated provincials began to 
return and gather within the frail defenses of Johnson's camp. 
Unfortunately, they had been waylaid, and many of their num- 
ber killed at the first fire of the ambushed enemy. But, not 
losing their discretion, they sent back many a fatal shot into the 
ranks of their pursuers, as they fell back. The Indians, in par- 
ticular, had distinguished themselves. Forty of their number 
had been slain, among whom was Hendricks, their distinguished 
chief. Col. Williams was also among the killed. 

Except about 300 Indians, the whole of Johnson's army was 
made up of troops from the New England States and the State 
of New York, quite unaccustomed to the dexterous art of fight- 
ing, while Dieskau's command was composed of French regulars, 
disciplined into measured evolutions by service on the Continent. 
Added to these, also, was the usual complement of Canadian 
Indians, whose war-whoop had often echoed through the forests 
of Canada to repel Iroquois invasion, or startled the lonesome 
borderers of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York, 
on scalping excursions. Before 12 o'clock, the gleam of French 
bayonets threw its hostile glare into the open spot in the forest 
where Ft. Henry stood. So little time had been given for its 
construction, that its walls, which were made of logs, were 
scarce three feet high ; and, to accommodate themselves to these 
incomplete defenses, the whole army prostrated themselves on 
the ground, none of them daring to staud erect lest he should 
be a target for French bullets. 

Dieskau approached the place with a caution unusual to the 
dash of Frenchmen, and opened fire on it at a respectful dis- 
tance. This style of attack was well suited to the undisciplined 
soldiers of Johnson, inasmuch as it gave them time to tone up 
their courage. The attack was kept up till 4 o'clock, with severe 
loss to the French and but trifling to the besieged. Dieskau's 
Indians had been startled from their lurking places behind such 
trees as still remained within range of the fort, by some well- 
directed cannon shots, and the fire of the French was weaken- 
ing. At this juncture, Johnson's men rose to their feet, and 
dashed against the French with an impetuosity which would do 
honor to veterans. The enemv fied in broken ranks, and Dies- 



Loudon Appointed Commander-in-Chief. 79 

kau was severely wounded in the vain attempt to rally them. 
Unable to follow his defeated soldiers, he was taken a pris- 
oner into the American camp. Johnson had also been wounded 
painfully, but not dangerously, and, while his wound was being 
dressed, Dieskau was brought into his presence. The shadows 
of evening were lengthening as the French fled into the forest 
by the way they had come. Johnson's men did not follow them, 
and the retreaters traveled along the well-known way toward the 
banks of Wood Creek, where they were to embark for Lake 
Champlain and return to Canada. 

While the battle at Ft. Henry was going on, a small band of 
scouts, consisting of 80 men from Col. Blan chard's New Hamp- 
shire regiment and 40 men from the New York regiment, left 
Ft. Edwards and followed the track of the French army, as it 
had advanced in the morning toward Ft. Henry. At 4 o'clock 
the scouts came upon a camp in the forest, where the stores of 
the French army had been left under a small guard. These were 
easily dispersed, and the camp stores taken. Flushed with this 
success, the scouts now determined to meet the entire French 
army on their retreat, and accordingly ambushed themselves in 
their path. In the gray of the evening, the retreating French- 
men came up, but they were in no condition to renew a battle. 
They had been under fire since morning, while their new enemy 
was fresh, although but a handful, and they sent from their cov- 
ert a storm of bullets into the ranks of the already defeated fu- 
gitives, as they painfully toiled along the treacherous forest path, 
over which they had passed in the morning in confident zeal. 
A large number of the jaded Frenchmen were killed in the noc- 
turnal fight, and their whole army fled in the utmost confusion. 
The Americans lost but six men.* The number engaged in the 
three battles were about 2000 on each side. The loss of the 
Americans was about 300, and that of the French double that 
number, f This brilliant feat of arms, closed the campaign of 
1755, which had opened with the appalling defeat of Braddock 
on the Monongahela. 

While the provincial troops were winning the first laurels of the 
war, the shattered remnant of Braddock' s army, instead of re- 
maining near the frontier to hold the Indians in check, had gone 
into winter quarters in Philadelphia, greatly to the disgust of the 
border settlers of Virginia and Pennsylvania, who were now ex- 
posed to the savage raiders, whose council-fires blazed under the 
French flag in the Ohio country. 

Early in the spring of 1756, Lord Loudon was appointed Gov- 
ernor of Virginia and commander-in-chief of all the English and 

* Belknap's History of New Hampshire. 

f Johnson was baroneted and further rewarded with a gift of £5000 by the Eng- 
ish court. He was now Sir William Johnson. 



80 Contingent Diplomacy. 

provincial forces in America. Gen. Abercrombie was appointed 
second in command. He arrived in America on the 25th of 
June, bringing two regiments with him, and made his headquar- 
ters at Albany, where a respectable force of provincials from 
New York and the New England States were ready for his ser- 
vice. Loudon did not arrive till the 29 th of the succeeding 
month. 

Gen. Montcalm had been appointed to take the chief command 
of the French forces, and had already arrived in the St. Lawrence 
with fresh recruits for the approaching campaign. 

Incredible as it may seem, no declaration of war had yet been 
made by either England or France, but both nations had been 
plying their seductive arts of diplomacy, never so sweetly, to 
secure alliance. France had positive purposes at which she aim- 
ed, the chief one of which was to preserve her American pos- 
sessions, and the means to be used in the achievement of this 
end were definitely settled upon, which, in brief, were to attack 
the allies of England on the Continent, by which diversion New 
France in America was to be made invulnerable against her 
rival, whose strength must be largely occupied on the defensive 
at home. 

The ultimatum of England was not less clearly defined than 
that of France, but the means by which it was to be brought 
about were more complicated. The tenacity with which the 
American colonists had clung to their political rights at the Al- 
bany convention of 1754, as well as the able statesmanship of 
the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania Assemblies, 
not always in harmony with the crown, had awakened a sense 
of caution in the English court, in their dealings with their 
trans- Atlantic children, and the question came to the surface 
whether it was better to drive France entirely out of America, 
or allow her to retain enough there to become a rival to the Eng- 
lish colonists, and thereby insure their loyalty through their ob- 
ligations for assistance in defending themselves from the French. 
King George II. shared these apprehensions, while William Pitt 
had always been in favor of pushing the war in America without 
fear of adverse consequences. 

England and Eussia had long been friends, and, as soon as 
war with France appeared inevitable, she made a treaty with the 
empress of Eussia, by the conditions of which Hanover (Eng- 
land's ally) was to be protected by Eussian troops in the event 
of a European war, for which service England was to pay her. 
This treaty bore date of September 13th, 1755. A few months 
later, both France and Prussia manifested dispositions to invade 
portions of Germany, the French incentive to which was to keep 
England busy at home, while she (France) made her American 
possessions secure, as already stated. The Prussian incentive, 



Oswego Taken. 81 

one historian was uncharitable enough to say, was Frederic's 
ambition to see his name heralded in the gazettes.* Russia was 
now alarmed lest she might be attacked by Prursia, and, con- 
scious of her inability to fulfill her treaty stipulations with Eng- 
land as to the protection of Hanover, she applied to France for 
the preservation of the neutrality of that electorate. These ac- 
cumulating evidences of the rising power of Frederic stimulated 
England to make an alliance with him, which was done January 
16th, 1756, although by this treaty the interests of Eussia, as 
well as those of Hanover, were left unprotected. \ The effect 
was to unite the interests of Russia with France, and also those 
of Austria with the same power, although the two had long been 
enemies. 

All this plotting and counter-plotting, which, by a paradoxi- 
cal combination, transposed the friendships and enmities of the 
great powers of Europe, grew out of the issue between England 
and France as to which should take possession of the Upper 
Ohio country, although the fortunes of war ultimately brought 
into question the patent to the title of Canada itself. It began 
in a land speculation of the Ohio Company, whose regal title to 
lands on the Ohio river was not honored by the French court. 

England was the first to throw off the plastic but already 
blood-stained shield of diplomacy and make an open declaration 
of war, which she did on the 18th of May, 1756. France re- 
torted in kind the succeeding month. 

While Gen. Abercrombie was wasting his time at Albany, in 
the summer of 1756, Montcalm gathered a force of 3000 French 
soldiers, with a band of Indians, and made a descent on Oswego 
in August. His heavy artillery soon made the place untenable, 
and Col. Mercer, its commander, secured a retreat from it across 
the river, into another fort. Here he was again attacked, but he 
defended the place with exemplary courage till a fatal shot killed 
him. His garrison attempted a retreat to another fort four miles 
up the river, under command of Gen. Schuyler ; but the wary 
Montcalm Hanked this movement with too formidable a force to 
make it possible, and the whole command of 1400 men were 
obliged to give themselves up as prisoners, together with a large 
quantity of military stores, among which, however, there was 
no powder, for the garrison had spent it in their defense. It had 
not been burnt in vain, as the loss of the French was a proof. 
Among the killed were 20 Indians, and, to placate their surviv- 
ing friends, as many American prisoners were given them to be 
killed, by the unscrupulous, not to say inhuman, leader of the 
French. The sick and wounded, among whom was Lieut, de 

* Secret History of the Court of Berlin. 

t Smollet's Hist, of England, vol. 4, p. 178. 



82 Pitt made Premier. 

La Court, were scalped by the Indians, notwithstanding the 
terms of the surrender guaranteed their protection. 

This closed the campaign of 1756, with a decided advantage 
to the French and a prodigal waste of military force on the part 
of the English, which was attributable to the suspense which 
then hung over the political affairs of the English court. By 
this time, the popular feeling in England was in favor of pushing 
the war in America with vigor, and, against his hitherto declar- 
ed convictions, the king now saw the necessity of adopting the 
policy of Pitt. Accordingly, this eminent statesman was ap- 
pointed premier. Even at this early period, one of the founda- 
tion stones of American liberty was laid. The landed proprie- 
taries under the original Penn grant objected to have their estates 
taxed for the support of the war, and their influence was so great 
in the Assembly that Denny, the governor, dared not oppose 
them. On this account, oenjamin Franklin refused any politi- 
cal favors from him, but, on the contrary, wrote caustic articles 
against the sordid injustice of the proprietors. The policy of 
Franklin prevailed. The estates in question had to bear their 
share of the taxation. Denny was recalled by Pitt, and Frank- 
lin began to be looked upon, even in England, as a statesman of 
no ordinary capacity. In America, a universal applause greeted 
him. The Assemblies of Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and 
Massachusetts, appointed him as their agent at the English court, 
and presented him five thousand pounds. Arriving in London, 
he sought an interview with Pitt, but that tenacious statesman 
forebore to let down the dignity of the British nation by holding 
a colloquy with an American postmaster. Through his secreta- 
ry, however, he counseled with him in terms of high respect. 

Lord Loudon was at this time making himself conspicuous in 
America for his caustic criticisms of the provincial soldiers, 
while he was exhausting his resources, not in fighting the ene- 
my, but in planning expeditions never destined to be executed.* 

Under his direction, the campaign of 1757 was opened by 
embarking from New York with a heavy force, to take Louis- 
burg, which place he did not even attack, although his fleet 
came in sight of it, and contented themselves by giving its gar- 
rison a scare. 

While this untimely scheme was in progress, the vigilant 
Montcalm appeared before Ft. William Henry, an important de- 
fense which had been built at the southern extremity of Lake 
George, near the spot where Dieskau had been defeated two 
jears before. He had 10,000 men, consisting of regulars, Ca- 

* A Philadelphian said of him, " He reminds me of St. George on a sign-board, 
always on horseback and never advancing." In a speech he made at Boston, he 
attributed all the ill success of the English in America to the inefficiency of the 
provincial troops. — Graham's Col. Hist. y vol. IV., p. 2. 



Ft. William Henry Taken. 83 

nadians, and Indians. About 2300 troops were all that could be 
opposed to this overwhelming force, 1500 of whom had just 
been sent by Col. Webb from Ft. Edwards on the Hudson river. 
While this reinforcement was marching into the fort, Montcalm's 
advance was seen approaching along the sunlit coast of Lake 
George, their burnished arms sending its flickering streaks of 
light before them, while the welkin resounded with a din of yells 
from his Indians, gaudy with feathers and darkened with war- 
paint. Col. Monroe held command of the fort, to whom Mont- 
calm sent a summons to surrender, offering him honorable terms, 
but Monroe, aware of the importance of the position, determin- 
ed to defend it. The attack commenced on the 3d of August 
and lasted till the 9th. The guns of the fort had nearly all been 
burst in their desperate efforts to repel their numerous assailants. 
Hemmed in on every side, his messengers, sent to seek relief 
from Ft. Edwards, had been captured, and his weakness thereby 
made known to Montcalm. To hold the place longer was impos- 
sible, and he surrendered. The garrison marched out with the 
honors of war, and were not to appear again in arms against 
France under eighteen months unless exchanged. They were to 
be protected against violence from Montcalm's Indians by asuit- 
able escort of French soldiers, on their way to Ft. Edward, the 
place to which they had been permitted to retire by the terms 
of the surrender. 

No sooner had they left the fort than the Indians began to 
gather around them with no good intent. First they commenced 
robbing the sick and wounded, and next the shining coats of the 
British regulars attracted their attention. These were pulled 
from their backs, and whatever of value could be found about 
their persons was taken. A carnival of blood followed, and sev- 
eral hundred of the unprotected captives fell victims. Jonathan 
Carver was among the prisoners, but escaped as if by a miracle, 
with the loss of his coat and covered with wounds. He says 
that, during the maddening career of butchery, the French sol- 
diers and officers walked about outside of the bloody arena in 
careless unconcern, without attempting to stay the hands of the 
destroyers.* 

Not long after this atrocity, says the same author, the small- 
pox broke out among these Indians, who, tormented into deliri- 
um, threw themselves into the water to assuage the burning irri- 
tation. Death followed in almost every case, and a few mottled- 
faced savages were the only survivors of this tragedy which sent 
a pang of grief throughout Ke,>- England and New York. In 
justice to the Canadians, it should not be omitted that some of 
them refused to celebrate the unhallowed victory. 

* See Carver's Travels, pp. 295 to 308. 



84 Expedition to take Louisburg. 

The fugitives who escaped the slaughter gathered within the 
walls of Ft. Edwards and thence made their way to their homes, 
there to tell the tale of treachery and murder that had stained 
the French faith, and a recoil of righteous indignation arose 
throughout the country. 

The statesmanship of Pitt had already infused its vigor into 
the heart of England, and now its vitalizing influence was about 
to cross the Atlantic. He recalled Loudon, and to G-en. Aber- 
crombie was given the chief command.* Next in rank was Ma- 
jor Gen. Amherst, and an additional force of 5000 men was put 
in the field, with which to open the campaign of 1758. 

Gen. Amherst, assisted by Admiral Boscawen, was to attack 
Louisburg; Gen. Forbes was to march against Ft. Duquesne; 
while Gen. Abercrombie took upon himself the task of driving 
the French out of Lake Champlain by an attack on Ticonderoga. 

On the 28th of May, the expedition against Louisburg, con- 
sisting of 12,000 British regulars and 157 vessels, direct from 
England, embarked from Halifax, the place of rendezvous, on 
the coast of Nova Scotia. The fleet soon arrived at the tangent 
point of land on the Island of Cape Breton, where the fort stood, 
amidst the noisy desolation of the winds and waves, like a polar 
bear disputing possession of an iceberg, f The entrance to 
its harbor was obstructed by sunken vessels, while, far 
along the wave-beaten shore, the tri-colored flag of France waved 
in defiance from bastion and tower. In the face of these the 
troops must make a landing and fight their way to the rear of 
the town, over uneven ground affording shelter to its defenders. 
The charge of this difficult task was given to Gen. Wolfe, the 
same who, the next year, led the British troops up the Heights 
of Abraham. The soldiers threw themselves into their yawls, 
and labored at the oar through the surf to gain the shore, amidst 
a tempest of shot from its defenders. Many were thrown into 
the sea by the breakers, but the hardihood of the sailors finally 
prevailed, and a landing in force was made at the mouth of Cor- 
moran Creek, a few miles north of the place. Louisburg was 
now soon environed with heavy artillery, which poured hot shot 
into the town, and even set fire to the French war vessels in the 
harbor, burning all except two. To destroy these, Admiral 
Boscawen set on foot an adventure, which for daring has few 
equals in the annals of heroic warfare. Capt. Cook, the same 
whose wonderful voyages, subsequently made, excited universal 
attention, was the one to whose charge the enterprise was confi- 

* The reason assigned by Pitt for this step was that he could never ascertain 
what Loudon was doing. — Graham. 

f This fortress was the great French depot for supplies, from which to reinforce 
the inland ports of New France, and its harbor was a convenient refnge for French 
war vessels. 



English Defeated Before Ticoiideroga. 85 

ded. Under cover of night, at the head of 600 men, he silently 
rowed into the harbor, set fire to one of the vessels, and towed 
the other away. The English fleet now entered the harbor, and 
the town being at their mercy, Drucourt, its commander, capitu- 
lated on the 27th of July, and once more the key to St. Law- 
rence was given up to the English.* 5637 prisoners, 221 can- 
non, 18 mortars, and large quantities of ammunition, were the 
results of this victory. The war prisoners were sent to England, 
and the inhabitants of the town, 4000 in number, were, by the 
inexorable laws of war in those days, torn from their homes and 
sent to France on English transports. The defenses of the town 
were then demolished, and the place was left without a solitary 
inhabitant to mourn over its destruction. The Island of St. 
John shared the fate of Cape Breton Island, both of which fell 
under the flag #f England at the reduction of Louisburg. This 
was a grievous blow to the French of the St. Lawrence, as it 
was from here that they largely drew their supplies to feed their 
soldiers, both beef and corn being exported from the fertile fields 
of St. John's Island, even in that early day. 

While the siege of Louisburg was in full tide. Gen. Abercrom- 
bie was marshaling his forces to attack Montcalm, who had 
strongly intrenched himself within the walls of Ticonderoga. 
Early in July, he embarked his troops on Lake George, consist- 
ing of 7000 British regulars, a part of whom were Highlanders, 
10,000 provincials, and a few companies of Indians. No less 
than 900 batteaux and 135 whale-boats were required for their 
transportation. Arriving within a few miles of the fort, the ar- 
my disembarked on the wooded shore and commenced their cir- 
cuitous route over hills and valleys shaded by a dense canopy of 
evergreen foliage. They soon arrived at an outpost of Ticon- 
deroga, which the French evacuated in hot haste and disappear- 
ed among the trees. The English kept on their course, but soon 
their guides became bewildered within the toils of the thicket, 
when suddenly they came in contact with the company of French 
soldiers who had just before abandoned their post at the approach 
of the English. They, too, were lost in the woody mazes, and, 
after a sharp skirmish, surrendered themselves as prisoners. 
From them Gen. Abercrombie learned that Montcalm had but 
6000 troops at the fort, he having lately sent away a detachment 
of 3000 men to invade the country on the Mohawk river, but 
that this force had just been ordered back to assist in his defense. 
Abercrombie now resolved to assault the fort before their return. 
Accordingly, the regulars were ordered to charge against the 

* An expedition had been planned against the place by Gov. Shirley ten years 
before the war, when it was taken by New England troops, but restored again to 
France at the peace of Aix la Chapelle ; since which time the French had laid 
out thirty million livres in strengthening it. 



86 Ft. Frontenac Taken. 

works, which they did with an exalted courage seldom witnessed. 
The place stood on a spit of land extending into the lake, the 
approach to which was over a neck of springy soil covered with 
trees. These had been felled with the tops pointing away from 
the fort, and covered the ground over which the assailants had 
to pass with a tangle of brush. 1800 of these brave soldiers 
were shot in the attempt to force their way through this abattis, 
when the retreat was sounded by the rash commander, and he 
returned to his camp on Lake George. 

Before marching on this disastrous expedition, Col. Bradstreet 
had been sent with a force of 3000 provincials, on a heroic ad- 
venture far within the enemy's territory, on their main line. It 
will not be forgotten with how much zeal Ft. Frontenac had been 
pushed to completion, in the early and ambitious days of La 
Salle. Located at the point where the St. Lawrence outlets the 
waters of Lake Ontario, it commanded the communication along 
the great thoroughfare between Canada and the French posts of 
Ft. Niagara, Ft. Duquesne, and the Illinois country. If this 
place could be taken, Ft. Duquesne, toward which an expedition 
was now renewed by the English, could not be reinforced from 
Canada. Crossing the eastern extremity of Lake Ontario, Brad- 
street came upon the unsuspecting tenants of the fort, where a 
feeble garrison was reveling in a treacherous security behind its 
walls of stone. They surrendered without attempting a defense, 
and 60 cannon, 16 mortars, a bountiful store of merchandise and 
ammunition, to supply the necessities of the forts to the west, 
were the direct spoils of the victors, but 18 French war vessels 
on the lake were soon added to the list. Bradstreet destroyed the 
fort and returned with his force to Oswego, which place Mont- 
calm had evacuated soon after his victory over Mercer. 

During the whole season, while the movements against Louis- 
burg, Ticonderoga, and Ft. Frontenac, had been going on, pre- 
parations for the attack on Ft. Duquesne had been in progress, 
but, ere it could be brought about, prodigious barriers of nature 
had to be overcome in crossing the mountains. 

The Pennsylvanians, more intent on their interests than the 
public weal, availed themselves of the opportunity to get a road 
cut from their frontiers to the west at the expense of the military 
exchequer. While Washington and the Virginians urged the 
advantages of the old road made by the Ohio Company six years 
before, and greatly improved by Braddock's engineers two years 
later, Gen. Forbes, who was the commander of the expedition, 
was prostrate on a bed of sickness, and to Col. Boquet, second 
in command, was given authority to decide on the choice of 
routes. His decision was in favor of the Pennsylvania route, 
and on this line the army took up its march late in July. Wash- 



Mission of Post. 87 

ington, who held a colonel's commission, now entered cordially 
into the work, and, as usual, took the front. 

While the axe is chopping a new path to the Ohio country for 
the bayonet to follow, we will take a glance at its tenants. 

The Delawares, whose home was originally on the Susque- 
hanna, had ever been at peace with the whites, till the outbreak 
of the war. William Penn, their loving father, had long been 
in his grave, and his mantle of charity not having fallen upon 
his successors, the Delawares had been compelled to give up the 
fairest portion of their lands.* But in the autumn of 1756. after 
more than a year of warfare between the whites and the Dela- 
wares, who still remained on the Susquehanna, some Quakers, 
whose broad-brims secured them a safe interview, succeeded in 
restoring the old chain of friendship. This renewed league, 
however, did not bind the Delawares who had been driven to 
the Ohio. These, with the Shawanese, Mingoes. and many oth- 
er tribes, had been on the best of terms with the French ever 
since the war had begun. But since the late English successes, 
the possibility of winning their friendship was considered by the 
English, and friendly messages were sent to them by the eastern 
Delawares. The French, meantime, began to send emissaries 
to the eastern Delawares, inviting them to join their brothers in 
the Ohio country, under protection of the lilies of France. Au- 
tumn was now at hand, and the army of Forbes was still toiling 
among the mountains toward the fatal fort, liable at any time to 
be attacked by a host of Indians, and the success of his expedi- 
tion seemed doubtful. In this emergency, it was deemed all- 
important to send an able messenger to the hostile tribes of the 
Ohio, to induce them, if possible, to forsake the waning fortunes 
of the French. 

Prominent among the Moravian (United Brethren) missiona- 
ries was a heroic apostle of their ancient faith, named Christian 
Frederic Post. This remarkable people dated their order back 
to John Huss, who preceded Luther a century. In 1732, they 
established a missionary station in the Island of St. Thomas. 
The next year thev are found among the icebergs of Greenland, 
and the next in Georgia, teaching the savages the elements of 
Christianity. In 1730, they came to Pennsylvania and set up a 
tabernacle "among the Delawares. So successful had they been 
here in converting the Indians, that the jealousy of the borderers 
was aroused lest the Bible and hymn-book should rival the whis- 
ky-jug. Post was one of the foremost workers in the missionary 
cause, and consequently became an object of great aversion to 
the border ruffians. He was thrown into prison on false charges, 
and, when liberated for want of evidence, was set upon by a 



* Doc. Hist, of N. Y., vol. II., p. 740. 



88 Ft. Duquesne Taken. 

mob, and narrowly escaped with his life.* He it was who vol- 
unteered to be the bearer of an English message to the hostile 
Indians on the Ohio. 

He started from Philadelphia on the 15th of July. A hroad 
belt of debatable territory had to be crossed, which had been 
traveled only by scalping parties since Brad dock's defeat. On 
the 7th of August, he passed the French post of Yenango un- 
harmed, as if a spell had been put upon its tenants. Arriving 
at the Indian town of Kushkushkee, he met 200 warriors, to 
whom he made proposals of peace. Their reply was as follows : 

" Why do you not fight your battles at home or on the high 
seas ? Your heart is good — you speak sincerely — but there is a 
large number among you who wish to be rich. We do not wish 
to be rich and take away what others have. The white people 
think we have no brains. But remember, when you hunt a rat- 
tle-snake, perhaps it will bite you before you see it."f 

Passing on to Sunkonk, the Indians at first surrounded him 
with drawn knives, and the French offered a reward for his 
scalp ; but, fortunately, there were some Delawares present who 
had listened to his preaching, and, through their influence, a re- 
action soon began to be manifest, insomuch that they asked him 
to read his message. While reading it, a French messenger 
came in from Ft. Duquesne with a belt. The English message 
had already won over the vacillating Indians, and they refused 
to receive the French token, but kicked it about as if it had been 
a snake, says Post's journal. A council was now proposed to 
be held. Accordingly, on the 24th, it met, and the place chosen 
for it was across the river from Ft. Duquesne, within the reach 
of its guns. Eight different tribes attended and made peaceful 
promises to the English, the French not daring to disturb the 
grave deliberations, though they dissolved their alliance with all 
the Indian tribes except the Shawanese and a few others. Post 
remained till the 9th of September, when he started on his re- 
turn. 

He reached Philadelphia in safety, and his journal was print- 
ed. All the while, Forbes' army was slowly advancing on the 
fort. On the 21st of September, a strong reconnoitering force 
was sent forward under Major Grant. Arriving near the fort, 
they were defeated with a loss of 200 men. 

While Forbes' army lay encamped at midnight, but a few 
miles from the place, a deep sound came quivering along the 
ground. " Ft. Duquesne is blown up !" exclaimed the sentinels, 
as the distant explosion broke the wild silence around them. 
The army pressed forward with the first peep of day, when three 
deserters from the French soon met them and confirmed the sus- 

* Heckewelder. t Post's Journal. 



Scene at Braddock? s Field, 89 1 

picion , and without further opposition the smouldering ruins 
of the fort were taken possession of on the 25th of November, 
1758. Its garrison, deserted by the Indians, had fled, thanks to 
the hardihood of Post. A new fort was immediately built and 
named Ft. Pitt, in honor of the great premier, and 200 Virgini- 
ans were left here to stand guard over the English flag, which 
now waved in triumph for the first time in the West. 

Among both the "English and provincial troops composing 
Forbes' army were surviving relatives of distinguished persons 
slain in Braddock' s defeat, and a desire to visit his battle-field 
and pay the last honors to their mouldering relics was manifest. 
Gen. Forbes, though an invalid and carried on a litter, entered 
heartily into this pious research, and gave the necessary orders 
for its execution under the charge of Capt. West, brother to the 
celebrated painter, Benjamin West. Besides his own company, 
a band of Indians, lately won over to the English interests by 
Post, were assigned to his command. Among these were seve- 
ral who had assisted in the slaughter. 

Major Sir Peter Halket, a member of Forbes' staff, had lost a 
father and a brother there, and from his description of their ap- 
pearance to the Indians, one of them assured him that he could 
point to the spot where they fell, near a remarkable tree. The 
expedition took up its march along the path through the forest 
that led to the fatal field, and the Indians, who were deeply im- 
pressed with the solemnity of the occasion, led the way with 
reverential footstep. When the field was reached, the search 
began around its environs. Skeletons were found lying across 
the trunks of fallen trees, a proof, in their imaginations, that 
they had died here in the lingering torments of mortal wounds 
and starvation combined. In other places, disjointed bones 
were scattered around, giving evidence that the wolves of the 
forest had claimed them as their share of the spoils. Following 
the Indians to the spot where Halket's father and brother were 
supposed to have fallen, the Indian who saw them fall pointed 
out the crouching-place he had occupied during the battle and 
the tree under which they had fallen. Large masses of leaves 
covered the ground, which the wind had drifted over their bones. 
These were removed, and two skeletons lay together, one across 
the other. Tenderly the Indians raised them from the ground, 
when Sir Peter Halket said, u My father had an artificial tooth ; 
examine his jaw." This was done, and there was the tooth. 
Sir Peter then exclaimed, "This is my father!" and fell insen- 
sible into the arms of his companions. A grave was dug on the 
spot ; the bones of father and son were placed in it ; a High- 
land plaid was spread over them ; they were covered with earth, 
and a salute was fired over their wilderness sepulcher. The In- 



90 Gen. Amherst appointed to the Chief Command. 

dian who pointed them out was not asked who was their execu- 
tioner.* 

We come now to the most interesting part of the war. Even 
as the whirlwind gathers force as it travels, so did the magni- 
tude of the issue in America enlarge as well as the national am- 
bition to circumvent the French. Whatever misgivings had 
ever existed in the English court as to the policy of driving the 
French out of Canada, now vanished in the broad path of nation- 
al grandeur, and it was determined to attack Quebec itself, to 
bring about what both England and America demanded, the 
complete expulsion of the French. 

In consequence of the reverse of Gen. Abercrombie before the 
walls of Ticonderoga, it was deemed expedient to supply his 
place with another general whose hold upon the public confidence 
had not been impaired by defeat. Gen. Amherst possessed these 
qualifications, and was promptly appointed by Pitt to succeed 
him. Under his guidance, the colonial States put forth renewed 
exertions to end the war by one more decisive campaign. Con- 
necticut raised 5000 men, among whom was Israel Putnam, des- 
tined to a lasting fame. Massachusetts raised 6500, and New 
Hampshire 1000. The numbers raised by other States were 
smaller ; but all the English forces in the field numbered fully 
50,000, about half of whom were British regulars and the bal- 
ance provincials, any and all of whom had mettle and endurance 
not to be questioned. 

Ere the campaign of 1759 could be opened, a wintry truce 
must intervene, chaining the hostile arms of both nations with 
icy fetters, while their respective armies shivered in their bar- 
racks, at safe distances from each other, by fitful turns killing 
the tedious hours with boisterous hilarity or thoughts of home, 
of which none can think more tenderly than the volunteer sol- 
dier fresh from the cornfield. 

The English held the inside of the circle, or rather its segment 
commencing at Ft. Pitt, where a litle band of Virginians stood 
sentinels at the outer edge of the immense plains of the Missis- 
sippi valley. At Oswego, the army of Gen. Brad street were re- 
posing on their laurels, after their brilliant feat of taking Ft. 
Frontenac. At the head of Lake George rested the main body 
of the English and provincial soldiers. North of them were 
formidable bodies of French and Canadians entrenched, in con- 
fident security, within the walls of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 

Ft. Niagara was a post of great importance, and a respectable 
contingent of French soldiers now garrisoned its walls. The 
small stockades along French Creek had never been anything 
more than resting places for the French on their way to Ft. Du- 

* Gait's Life of West. 



Johnson's Victory at Niagara. 91 

quesne ; and, as this place was now in the hands of the English, 
the French only held them with the hope of retaking this strat- 
egic point. 

While at these various places the armies of the two nations 
confronted each other during the winter, the salons of Quebec 
and Montreal were gay with Parisian elegance. The Frenchmen 
who could crowd the theaters of Paris during the throes of the 
French Revolution subsequent to this, were of the same spirit as 
these volatile Canadians, undisturbed as they were by the shad- 
ows of an English invasion hovering around their southern bor- 
der. All the while, visions of future grandeur rose before the 
eyes of the English, and a rare combination of fortuitous events 
was destined to verify them. 

Gen. Amherst was to attack the posts of Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point. Gen. James Wolfe was to lay siege to Quebec, 
and Gen. Prideaux, with Gen. Johnson as second in command, 
was to march against Niagara. This expedition started from Os- 
wego early in July, 1759, making its way in boats along the 
southern shore of Lake Ontario, where they landed without op- 
position at the mouth of Niagara on the 6th. The fort origin- 
ally built here by La Salle, in 1678, had been abandoned by the 
French in 1688, and again rebuilt by them in 1726, since which 
time it had been a menace to the Iroquois ; but to the western 
tribes it was a haven of promise, on which rested an assurance 
of protection from their traditional enemies. To the French it 
was second in importance only to Quebec, commanding as it did 
the channel of commerce, which was then carried on by canoes 
only, along the entire chain of lakes. No sooner had Gen. Pou- 
chot, the commander of the fort, learned of the approach of the 
invaders, than he summoned to his aid all the spare French 
troops from Detroit, Presque Isle, Le Bceuf, and V enango, and 
as many Indian allies as could be induced to take up arms for 
the declining fortunes of the French. The number of French 
thus raised from the distant forts and the Indians combined was 
1500 ; but, ere they could gather within the walls of the fort, 
Johnson intercepted their path, and they were obliged to fight 
his army on an equal footing. This battle took place not far 
from Niagara Falls, on the east bank. D' Aubrey, the leader of 
the French, dashed against Johnson's well-trained army of pro- 
vincials and Indians, with desperate resolution ; but the fire they 
met was so fierce that it was like the surprise of an ambuscade. 
D' Aubrey himself, with 17 officers, were taken prisoners, and 
many of the French soldiers, while their red allies lied into their 
native forests to brood over their misfortunes. Gen. Prideaux 
was pushing the siege all the while, but was killed in the trench- 
es by the bursting of a srun, when the command fell upon John- 
son, who, after his victory, summoned Gen. Pouchot to surren- 



92 Gen. 'Wolfe before Quebec. 

der. The summons was obeyed, and 607 officers and privates 
became prisoners. A large quantity of scalping-knives were 
among the military stores taken. The prisoners were sent to 
New York, leaving behind them many a romantic reminiscence 
of a spot in which nature was so prodigal with her gifts, among 
which the dusky beauty of the forest was not the soonest to be 
forgotten by the gay French lieutenants. 

This blow effectually severed the line of communication be- 
tween Canada and the Mississippi valley ; but since the French 
had been driven from Ft. Duquesne, little remained then which 
could offer any serious resistance to the English, scattered as the 
forts were from Detroit to the far-distant post of New Orleans. 

While Johnson had been dictating terms to the French at Ni- 
agara, Amherst massed his forces at Albany, crossed Lake George 
with 12,000 men, and appeared before Ticonderoga on the 22d 
of July. He immediately began to plant his batteries ; but, be- 
fore the place was environed, the French evacuated, blowing up 
their magazine behind them, and took refuge within the walls of 
Crown Point on the 27th. Gen. Amherst promptly followed 
them to their new retreat ; but, at his approach, they again fled 
down the lake, and entrenched themselves on the island of Aux 
Noix. The season was now too far advanced to continue opera- 
tions, and after some skirmishing, in which two French vessels 
were captured, Gen. Amherst went into winter quarters at Crown 
Point. 

Gen. Wolfe was now before the walls of Quebec. Early in 
June, he sailed up the St. Lawrence with 8000 men, and made 
a landing on the island of Orleans, just below the city. He 
found it planted on the summit of a headland of rock, at the 
base of which the St. Lawrence, a mile wide, rolled along the 
surplus waters of the great lakes. Below, the St. Charles and 
Montmorenci, tributaries from the north, cleft to its base the ad- 
amantine bank on which the city stood. Entrenched behind 
earthworks, on the bluffs of these streams, rested the left wing of 
its defenders, the right extending to the city. Heavy forests 
extended far to the north in the rear, affording additional pro- 
tection. Above the city, the same bank held its undiminished 
height for miles along the river. Montcalm himself stood be- 
hind these defenses with 14,000 soldiers. Before going on with 
the progress of Wolfe, let us turn back to the days of Ft. Ne- 
cessity. 

When Col. Washington gave up this fort, five years before, it 
will not be forgotten that Major Kobert Stobo was one of the 
hostages delivered into the hands of the French. He was taken 
to Ft. Duquesne, where his ready adaption to his situation as 
prisoner soon won favor among the French' soldiers, who have 
ever been conspicuous in history for their magnanimity toward 



Stolons Captivity. 93 

a fallen foe. Among the Indians who came and went to the 
fort without ceremony, was one named Delaware George, who 
had been a disciple of Post* on the Delaware river. Something 
in his companionship won the confidence of Stobo, and he 
sent the converted Delaware through the forests with a letter to 
Virginia, containing important information. Delaware George 
quietly left the place without exciting suspicion, and delivered 
the message. At Braddock's defeat, the document, with all oth- 
er papers of Braddock's, fell into the hands of the French ; but 
as no one at the fort could translate English, it was sent to Paris. 
Meantime, Stobo had been sent to Canada, and here the evidence 
of his spying message overtook him, on the 28th of November, 
1756. He was tried and sentenced to be hung, but the numer- 
ous friends he had made in Canada, particularly among the fas- 
cinating women of Quebec, came to his rescue, and his pardon 
was applied for at the French court. The king gave it, and 
once more Stobo was an honored hostage, though a prisoner. 
He soon afterward made his escape, but a reward of 6000 livres 
brought about his capture, which was effected on the banks of 
the Montmorenci, while he was looking for a boat in which to 
cross the St. Lawrence. This river crossed, he intended to pierce 
the hostile forests which intervened between Canada and the 
English frontier. After his unsuccessful attempt to escape, his 
confinement became more strict and his health gave way. This 
misfortune redoubled the tenderness of his fair patron who had 
long befriended him. This true-hearted heroine now used her 
influence with Vaudreuil, the governor, to mitigate the severity 
of Stobo's confinement. Her plea was successful, and he was 
allowed to exercise on the ramparts, anywhere within the lines 
of the sentinels. Here he soon made the acquaintance of a Mr. 
Stephenson, a native of New Hampshire, who had been captured 
from the daring band of Rogers' Rangers. He was a ship carpen- 
ter, and being at work for the French in the shipyard, knew all the 
possible avenues of escape by boat. A plan was soon made up 
by the two to effect this, and, the first favorable opportunity, it 
was put in execution, by seizing a yawl and going down the St. 
Lawrence. Soon as his flight had been discovered, a reward 
was again offered for him ; but the rapid current of the river 
had left behind all danger of capture. 

One stricken heart was also left behind, to whom his empty 
cell was a painful memorial of unrequited love. 

The adventurers, after great privations, reached Louisburg 
while Gen. Wolfe was there, -joined his army, and were with 
him at the siege of Quebec. While this was in progress, Wolfe 
wished to communicate with Gen. Amherst, and Stobo volun- 

* See Heckewelder. 



94: Wolfe Defeated on the Montrnorenci. 

teered to to take the message to him, across the country, which 
he succeeded in delivering at his winter quarters at Crown Point. 
This done, the hero proceeded to his old home in Virginia, 
where, on November 19th, 1759, the House of Burgesses voted 
him a bonus of £1000, besides full pay for his services during 
his eventful captivity.* 

The first place attacked by Wolfe, after landing, was the 
Heights of Point Levi, across the river from Quebec. This he 
carried with ease, and erected a battery on the spot, from which 
he opened fire upon the town, reducing the lower portions of it 
to ashes. Montcalm, trying in vain to dislodge the English 
from this point, conceived the idea of burning their fleet as it 
lay anchored below the city. A number of fire-ships were set 
afloat from above, to accomplish this design ; but the English 
sailors, by great exertion, managed to turn them aside, and they 
harmlessly consumed below. Wolfe in turn made a direct attack 
on the left wing of Montcalm's army, as it lay intrenched on the 
banks of the Montrnorenci. A strong detachment of Highland- 
ers and provincials crossed the river in small boats, under cover 
of a fire from the ships, and, clambering up the steep bank of 
the river, made an impetuous attack on the French lines, but 
they were defeated, with a loss of 500 men. 

Up to this time, no tidings had come from either Johnson or 
Amherst, although the French were well informed of what had 
transpired in the various theaters of the war, and an event soon 
took place which brought this information to Wolfe. At Cham- 
baud, a short distance up the river, the French had a magazine, 
defended by a small body of soldiers. Gen. Murray was sent 
to capture it, which being effected, the prisoners taken gave the 
first news to Wolfe of the success of the English arms at Niag- 
ara and Lake Champlain. The season, however, was so far ad- 
vanced that no hopes could be entertained of assistance from 
either Amherst or Johnson, and, smarting under the sting of 
defeat on the banks of the Montrnorenci, he wrote to the Secre- 
tary of State, informing him of his defeat and of the difficulties 
in the way of taking Quebec. A council of war was called on 
the 3d of September, and by its deliberations it was resolved to 
transfer the operations against Quebec from the Montrnorenci to 
the banks of the river above the town. The ill success which 
had thus far attended the enterprise had wrought upon the mind 
of Wolfe till he was prostrate on a bed of sickness; and, while 
in this situation, Generals Murray, Monckton, and Townsend, 
whom he had asked to propose some new plan of operations, 

* Until 1854, the British Museum was the custodian of Stobo's letters and man- 
uscript memoirs, and it was from Hume's letter to Smollet that the editor who first 
published the substance of them, became aware of their importance. The narra 
tive was at that time published in Pittsburgh, from which this account is taken. 



The English gain the Heights of Abraham. 95 

suggested an attack from the Heights of Abraham,* in the rear 
of the city, possession of which was to be gained under cover 
of night. Wolfe consented, though difficulties apparently insur- 
mountable, stood in the way. The ascent up the rugged bluffs 
was almost perpendicular and their summits guarded by French 
sentinels ; yet the desperate character of the enterprise, by dis- 
pelling suspicion from the French, might assure success, and or- 
ders were given for its execution. On the 12th of September, 
the English fleet moved up the river, several miles above the 
spot where the river bank was to be ascended. At midnight the 
small boats were lowered, 5000 soldiers stepped into them from 
the vessels, and silently floated down the current, lying close to 
the north bank. Several French sentinels had to be passed, but 
fortunately a Scotch officer among them understood the French 
language, and, when challenged, disarmed their suspicions by 
appropriate replies in good French. To the last challenge thus 
made, the Scotch officer's ingenuity in his reply was fully up to 
the demands of the critical occasion, he having cut off further 
inquiry by enjoining silence lest the English should overhear 
them. By the last packet which came from England, a copy of 
Gray's Elegy, which had recently been published, was sent to 
Wolfe. Deeply impressed with its poetic beauty, while silently 
floating down stream to the covef from which the army were to 
scale the bank, he repeated to his companions one of its lines — 

"The path of glory leads but to the grave." 

"Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem 
than take Quebec," said he. " Perhaps the noblest tribute ever 
paid by arms to letters, since that heroic era when hostile fury 
and havoc were remedied or intercepted by respect for the gen- 
ius of Aristotle, and for the poetry o ' Pindar and Euripides. "J 
About an hour before daybreak, Wolfe was among the first to 
leap ashore, when, turning his eyes upward to the shelving bank, 
he observed to an officer near him : "I doubt if you can get up, 
but you must do what you can." Col. Howe, brother to him 
killed at Ticonderoga, led the v\ ay at the head of the Highland- 
ers, and the whole army followed by a narrow path up the cliff, 
sometimes laying hold of the young shrubbery to facilitate the 
steep ascent. When the entire army had reached the summit, 
it was broad daylight. 

The astonished French sentinels quickly conveyed the inform- 
ation to Montcalm. At first, he would not believe it, but sup- 
posed the movement to be only a feint to distract his attention 
from the banks of the Montmorenci, where the real attack was 

* Graham's Colonial History, vol. IV., p. 49. 
■J-This has ever since been called Wolfe's Cove. 
\ Graharp 



96 Wolfe's Victory and Death, 

to be made. Farther observation, however, soon dispelled this 
illusion, and he quit his camp, crossed the St. Charles, and bold- 
ly advanced to meet Wolfe and decide the fate of New France 
on the battle-field. 

At nine o'clock, on the 13th of September, 1759, 13,000 
French soldiers stood on an elevated plateau, facing 5000 Eng- 
lish soldiers. Not a ditch — not a ravine — not a hill, valley, or 
tree was there between them, to intercept the mortal tornado 
.about to roll into the unprotected ranks of both armies. 

No human vision could pierce the future and bring to light the 
issue depending on the result of the battle. If the French arms 
had triumphed, the English must have fallen into their hands as 
prisoners, and Quebec have been reinforced long before the ar- 
mies of Amherst and Johnson could have reached the place, and 
the French would have retained the valley of the Mississippi. 

On the other hand, the triumph of the English arms was des- 
tined to lead to events which, if then foreseen, would have dis- 
tracted the English army between contending emotions of loyalty 
and self-protection ; for on the result of this battle hung the des- 
tiny of a nation yet in her germ-cell — America. 

Montcalm advanced to the conflict and commenced the fire. 
The English waited till but forty rods intervened between them- 
selves and the advancing French ; the order to fire was then giv- 
en, and from their whole front a tempest of shot flew into the 
ranks of the French, directed by the aim of veterans. The 
French never recovered from the shock. It was impossible to 
fill up the gaps made in their front ranks. They attempted to 
rally, but their lines wavered before the deadly aim of the Eng- 
lish, till they fled from the field, pursued by the Highlanders 
with broadswords. 

Early in the action, "Wolfe had been wounded in the arm, but 
bandaged it with his handkerchief. Soon afterward he received 
a shot in his groin, but, concealing the wound, still pushed on 
his men, when a third shot brought him down. The command 
now fell on Monckton, who soon fell wounded, when Gen. 
Townsend took his place. 

Montcalm was mortally wounded, and nearly a thousand of 
his men had fallen, either killed or wounded. Death spared 
"Wolfe till the shouts of victory ran through his lines — "They 
run! they run!" "Who run?" cried the dying man. "The 
French!" replied the officer on whose breast he was leaning. 
"Then I die happy!" said Wolfe, and ceased to breathe. 

Montcalm died the next day. The two commanders were 
buried beside each other, on the field where they had fought one 
of the decisive battles of the world. 

A third of Quebec had been burned by the fire of the English 
fleet. Gaiety and wretchedness were indiscriminately huddled 



Canada and the West given up to the English. 97 

together in squalid tenements ; but still they must pack closer 
yet. The 5000 English soldiers, less the fifty killed in the bat- 
tle, must have room, and the 500 wounded soldiers must have 
lint and gruel prepared for them. These knotty problems were 
soon solved by the stern decrees of war, by which the city had 
been given up to the English. A recoil from the harshness 
of these decrees, however, now spread a luster over the scene. 
A mutual spirit of conciliation was moulded in every face. Eng- 
lish and French vied with each other to assuage the calamities 
of war. The priests no longer prayed for the success of the 
French, or, if they did, the English cared little as long as the 
ensign of St. George waved from the watch-towers, and the ut- 
most freedom in religious matters was granted — mere trifles in 
the estimation of the conquerors compared to the great ques- 
tion at issue. 

The fugitives of Montcalm's army had fled to Montreal, where 
a force fully ten thousand strong represented the forlorn hope of 
New France. 

Spring came. The snowdrifts of the St. Lawrence had melted 
into its turbulent current, beariDg along its swollen waters releas- 
ed gorges of ice. While gazing at these, one day, the English 
sailors espied a man lying prostrate on one of them. The yawl 
was lowered, and the victim rescued from his perilous position, 
almost insensible from exhaustion and cold. When restored, he 
informed his new friends that he had fallen overboard from the 
French fleet, and, when questioned as to their movements, he 
gave such information as gave Gen. Murray no room to doubt 
that the French were about to make a descent on Quebec* 
Preparations were immediately made to meet the unexpected 
blow. One thousand of Murray's men had died with the scurvy, 
as many more were in the hospital, and he had but 3000 left. 
The attack soon came, 10,000 strong. A battle ensued, in which 
the English were partially defeated, but managed to retain their 
position till news came that an English fleet was sailing up the 
St. Lawrence, when the French retreated. By a chance, this 
English fleet gained the mouth of the river ahead of a French 
fleet destined for the same theater. A few months later, the 
English armies, under Gen. Amherst and Gen. Haviland, ap- 
peared before Montreal. The place surrendered, and Vaudreuil, 
the governor, gave up Canada and the West to the English, 
September 8th, 1760. The war still raged on the Continent, and 
it was not till February 10th, 1763, that the definitive treaty was 
signed at Paris. By its stipulations, everything east of the Mis- 
sissippi river, as far south as the southern limits of Georgia, was 
ceded to the English. 

♦Raynal, vol. VII. , p. 124. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Rogers sent by Gen. Amherst to take Possession of Detroit — 
He meets Pontiac on the way — Holds a Colloquy with him — 
Detroit garrisoned by the English, tmder Copt. Campbell 
— Discontent of the Indians — Alexander Henry arrives at 
Michilimaclcinac — Conspiracy to drive the English out of the 
Country — Detroit saved from Massacre by an Ojibway Girl 
— Is Besieged — Massacre at Michilimaclcinac — Narrow Es- 
cape of Alexander Henry — St. Joseph, Ouatanon, Miami, 
and Sandusky taken by the Indians — Capture of the Batteau 
Fleet sent to Succor Detroit — Horrible Massacre of the Sol- 
diers — Detroit Relieved — Arrival of Copt. Dalzell — His 
Disastrous Sortie — Desperate Defense of a Vessel loaded 
with Supplies — Pontiac retires to the Maumee Rapids. 

The French and Indian war began on the question as to who 
should own a bit of wild land drained by the tributary sources 
of the Ohio. 

The English went into it with tardiness, and the Americans, 
with the exception of the Virginia colony, with apathy ; not 
from any indisposition to sustain the national honor, for there 
was no such issue in the question. Each colony held its own 
respective territory, and could hardly be expected to fight for 
more, not knowing who might possess the prize if won. 

What had given the Virginia colony so deep an interest in the 
question, was the munificent donations of the lands on the Ohio 
to her subjects from the king. The recipients of these favors 
were the Ohio Company, prominent among whom were the 
Washington brothers, and this company had taken the first steps 
in the war by commencing the little fort at the fork of the Ohio, 
under Trent. 

George Washington struck the first hostile blow when he at- 
tacked Jumonville. Never in the records of nations did a great- 
er result grow out of an issue so apparently small. The magni- 
tude of the prize was an elephant on the hands of the victors. 

To the west were the forests north of the Ohio river, enriched 
by a thousand autumnal dressings of leaf-mould, through which 
unnumbered rivers and streamlets took their courses along val- 



Roger? Expedition to Detroit, 99 

leys of alluvium. Beyond these were oceans of prairie, luxuri- 
ant in grasses harvested each year only by the annual fires that 
swept over them. 

With the exception of the few French settlements mentioned 
in previous chapters, this immense country was a majestic waste, 
tenanted by perhaps one hundred thousand Indians. Most of 
these had always been the allies of the French, but such as were 
not had been forced into their friendship by the war. Now ev- 
erything was changed. To the English they must look for a 
supply of such goods as the elements of civilization had taught 
them the use of; and without which it was difficult to subsist. 
The trade in these articles, with furs in exchange, was now to go 
into the hands of the English ; but the first thing to be done 
was to take possession of such French forts as had not been 
taken by force during the war. 

These were Detroit, Sandusky, Michilimackinac, St. Joseph, 
Green Bay, the cluster of French villages in the Southern Illi- 
nois country, Yincennes and Ouatanon on the Wabash, and Ft. 
Miami on the Maumee, close by the spot where Ft. Wayne was 
subsequently built ; the whole containing a population not ex- 
ceeding 6000 French inhabitants. 

On the 13th of September, 1760, three days after the surren- 
der of Montreal, Major Robert Rogers was despatched by Gen. 
Amherst on this mission,* with a force of 200 chosen men, in 
fifteen whale-boats. His orders were to proceed to Ft. Niagara, 
where Maj. Walters, the commander, was to deliver into his cus- 
tody a Mr. Gamelin,f a French prisoner taken at the surrender 
of that post. He was then to proceed to Presque Isle, and from 
thence, with a small force, across the country to Ft. Pitt, then 
under the command of Gen. Monckton. 

From him he was to receive such assistance as was necessary 
in the execution of the work before him, which was to take pos- 
session of the posts of Detroit and Michilimackinac, and admin- 
ister the oath of allegiance to the inhabitants. This done, he 
was to return with his force to Albany, or wherever the head- 
quarters of the commanding general might be at that time. Ar- 
riving at Presque Isle on the 8th of October, in accordance with 
these instructions, he left his command, and, with only three 
companions, pursued the well-known French trail to Ft. Pitt, 
where he was reinforced by a detachment of Royal Americans, 

* Rogers had served during the war in the capacity of a Ranger. His field had 
been on the frontier between Albany and the French forts on Lake Champlain, 
where his daring exploits at the head of his chosen band of New Hampshire pro- 
vincials, were the admiration of both friend and foe. He kept a journal of his 
adventures and wrote a book entitled " Concise Account of North America," 
published in London in 1765, which forms the basis of this account. 

f Mr. Gamelin subsequently became a resident of Vincennes, and acted as me- 
diator between the Americans and Indians. 

LofC. 



100 Pontiao Interviews Him. 

under Capt. Campbell. Returning to Presque Isle, he received 
forty oxen from Col. Bryant, under charge of Capt. Monter, 
who, with the assistance of twenty Indians, was to drive them 
to Detroit, for the subsistence of the soldiers. About the first 
of November, the whole command embarked in their boats from 
Presque Isle. It was an English delegation, composed of Amer- 
icans, whose superior qualifications for such a dangerous adven- 
ture were apparent to G-en. Amherst. 

The western Indians had never before seen any other than 
Frenchmen, unless perchance some of them had been in battle- 
array against them on the bloody fields of the late war. As yet, 
the English flag had been saluted with yells of approbation by 
all the Indians they had met ; but these first ebullitions of ap- 
plause from the red frontierers might prove but a snare to lull 
them into a fatal security when the interior was reached. But 
Rogers, bred among the wiles of frontier warfare, had measured 
its depths of dissimulation, and he was ready for any emergency. 

While he is penetrating the country along the southern shore 
of Lake Erie in his little fleet of whale-boats, in his advanced 
path a savage hero lay, ruminating in his mind how to receive 
him. This was Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas. He was yet in 
the heyday of youth and strength, but a veteran in bush-fighting 
warfare. He had made himself conspicuous among the subtle 
spirits who had overwhelmed Braddock on the Monongahela. 
He had ever since been in the van of the war-path against the 
English, and his achievements had won for him a singular dis- 
tinction, which, by common consent, made him the acknowledg- 
ed chief, not only of his own tribe, but of all the surrounding 
tribes, who looked up to him as their Moses. His summer res- 
idence was on Pechu Island, eight miles above Detroit, and in 
the winter he lodged in the Ottawa village opposite, on the Cana- 
dian shore.* As soon as he heard of the advance of the Eng- 
lish into the country, he hastened, with a few of his attendants, 
to meet them. The first interview was held November 7th, on 
the southern shore of Lake Erie, at its western extremity. Here 
Rogers, having entered the mouth of a small stream, moored 
his boats and encamped. An Indian deputation soon waited on 
him, requesting him to proceed no farther till Pontiac, the king 
of the country, came up. Shortly afterward he came, and, at 
the first salutation, demanded how he dared to enter the country 
without his permission. In reply, Rogers informed him (with 
naive respect and dignity combined) that he had come, not to 
injure the Indians, but to remove the French soldiers of the 
country, who had hitherto been an obstacle to peace between 
the Indians and the English. This answer disarmed the chief 

*Lanman's Hist, of Mich., p. 91. 



Pontiac Conciliated. 101 

and modified his demeanor at once. Rogers next proceeded to 
inform him of the surrender of Canada to the English, which 
was news to Pontiac, though perhaps not unexpected from the 
ill success of the French since the tall of Niagara and Quebec 
several months before. 

On leaving, he told Rogers that if he needed anything his 
country could supply, he would send his warriors for it. He 
then took his leave, requesting Rogers not to advance farther 
till a council should be held the next morning. This opened as 
proposed — the peace-pipe was smoked, and Pontiac promised to 
protect Rogers on his way to Detroit. This promise he kept in 
good faith. Had he not done this, Rogers could not have reach- 
ed the place without a battle with the Indians, who, in heavy 
force, stood guard at the mouth of the river, to prevent his pas- 
sage. To these Pontiac gave orders to let the English pass un- 
molested, and, at the same time, ordered some of his men to 
assist Capt. Brewer along with the oxen driven from Presque 
Isle, besides this act ot courtesy, he manifested a disposition 
to learn the elements of civilization, asking Rogers about the 
English method of disciplining their forces, and even inquired 
how cloth and iron were made, and offered to give him a part of 
the country if he would take him to England on a visit. This 
offer was accompanied with the conciliatory proposal of paying 
an annual tribute to the king of England and calling him his un- 
cle. These were the terms on which the English might be per- 
mitted to settle in the country and remain as long as they treated 
the Indians with respect. If they failed to do this, he should 
drive them out and " shut up the door."* 

Rogers now resumed his march toward Detroit, taking care to 
send Lieut. Brheme, a French war prisoner, in advance, with 
the following letter to Capt. Bellestre, the French commander : 

" To Capt. Bellestre, or the Officer Commanding at Detroit. 

" Sir: — That you may not be alarmed at the approach of the 
English troops under my command when I come to Detroit, I 
send forward this by Lieut. Brheme, to acquaint you that I have 
Gen. Amherst's orders to take possession of Detroit and such 
other posts as are in that district ; which, by capitulation, agreed 
to and signed by Marquis de Yaudreuil and Gen. Amherst the 
8th of September last, now belong to Great Britain. I have 
with me the Marquis de Yaudreuil's letters to you, directed for 
your guidance on this occasion ; which letters I shall deliver to 
you when I am at or near your post, and shall encamp the troops 
I have with me at some distance from the fort, till you have rea- 
sonable time to be made acquainted with the Marquis de Yau- 

* Concise Account 



102 Device of the Crow, 

dreuil's instructions and the capitulation, a copy of which I have 
with me likewise. I am, Sir, 

" Your humble servant, 

" ROBERT ROGERS." 

Continuing to advance, Rogers met a squad of Hurons, from 
whom he learned that Bellestre had detained the messenger sent 
with his letter, and intended to oppose his entrance into the 
town. 

In order to arouse a spirit of resistance among the Indians, he 
had erected on a pole an effigy of Rogers, with a crow pecking 
pis eyes out, as an emblem of the fate in store for him if he at- 
tempted to enter Detroit ; but the Indians were skeptical as to 
such a result, and, notwithstanding the shallow device, accepted 
the wampum belt from Rogers, who represented, in their estim- 
ation, and correctly, too, the rising star of power, to whom they 
must now look for favors. 

The impossibility of holding the town against the English soon 
became evident to the French commander, and he began to con- 
ciliate. First, he despatched a messenger to Rogers with a let- 
ter, to inform him that he had put the inhabitants, and particu- 
larly the Indians, on their guard to prevent being plundered by 
the Indians who had joined the standard of the English, and 
also to preserve the English themselves from a like disaster 
when government of the town should change from French to 
English hands. Rogers replied as follows : 

"Sir: — I acknowledge the receipt of your two letters, both 
of which were delivered to me on yesterday. Mr. Brheme has 
not yet returned. The inclosed letter from the Marquis de Vau- 
dreuil will inform you of the surrender of all Canada to the king 
of Great Britain, and of the great indulgence granted to the in- 
habitants ; as also of the terms granted to the troops of his Most 
Christian Majesty. Capt. Campbell, whom I have sent forward 
with this letter, will show you the capitulation. I desire you 
will not detain him, as I am determined, agreeable to my in- 
structions from Gen. Amherst, speedily to relieve your post. I 
shall stop the troops I have with me at the hither end of the 
town till four o'clock, by which time I expect your answer. 
Tour inhabitants will not surprise me; as yet I have seen no 
other in that position, but savages waiting for my orders. I can 
assure you, Sir, the inhabitants of Detroit shall not be molested 
— they and you complying with the capitulation, but be protect- 
ed in the quiet and peaceable possession of their estates ; neither 
shall they be pillaged by my Indians, nor by yours that have 
joined me. I am, &c, 

"R. ROG-EES. 

"To Capt, Bellestre, commanding at Detroit." 



Detroit under the English Flag. 103 

Having despatched this letter, without waiting a reply, Eogers 
pushed his boats up the river, and landed within half a mile of 
the place. Here a messenger soon came to him from Bellestre, 
with his compliments, signifying that he awaited his orders. 
Lieuts. Lefflie and M'Corinick were now sent with 36 American 
troops to take possession of Detroit. 

The first item in the formula was to lower the French flag and 
elevate the English flag in its place. This was done, and a burst 
of riotous applause rent the air from the gutteral voices of 700 
Indians, while the French beheld the humiliation with silent and 
painful emotions, such as have never yet been felt in the breast 
of an American citizen. 

It was now the 29th of November, and Eogers, with his accus- 
tomed promptness, set about the execution of his still unfinished 
work. The French militia were disarmed and the oath of alle- 
giance administered to them. The regular soldiers, with their 
commander, Bellestre, were sent as prisoners of war to Phila- 
delphia, under the escort of Lieut. Holmes and thirty men. 

A party of 20 men were sent to take possession of the posts 
of Ouatanon,* on the head-waters of the Wabash and Miami, at 
the bend of the Maumee. These had been the extremes of ca- 
noe navigation on the two rivers — a portage connecting them by 
a well-frequented Indian trail, which had been in existence from 
time immemorial. After the French had settled at Vincennes, 
this thoroughfare to the lakes became an important one to them ; 
hence the erection of the post of Ouatanon, at the head of canoe 
navigation on this stream. Ft. Miami was also designed to fa- 
cilitate the same end,f and its early possession by the English 
was necessary, in order to command the respect of the Indians 
and establish the fur trade among them along their highway to 
the lakes. 

Capt. Campbell was now left in command of Detroit, while 
Rogers, with a small force, started toward Michilimackinac to 
establish the English standard at that important post. After a 
vain attempt to force his way along the icy and boisterous shore 
of Lake Huron, he was obliged to return to Detroit, and, on the 
21st of December, started with a few attendants across the conn- 
try to Ft. Pitt, arriving there on the 23d of January, 1761. He 
passed through Sandusky on his way, says Perkins' Western 
Annals (p. Ill), but does not inform us whether he left a garri- 

* Rogers called this Gafanois in his Journal, p. 229. 

f According to Brice's History of Fort Wayne, p. 12, Ft. Miami was built in 
1733. Volney, in his Researches, dates the building of Vincennes in 1735 ; but 
Law's date of 17 10 is more consistent with 1733 as the date of Miami. Ft. Oua- 
tanon probably bears a similar date. Late researches by the Danville Historical 
Society show that it was built on the west side of the Wabash, instead of the east, 
as indicated by the current histories. It is pronounced We-au-ta-non. 



104 Michilimackinac, etc., taken Possession of. 

son there or not. The next summer, Michilimackinac, Ste. Ma- 
rie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, Green Bay, and St. Joseph, 
were taken peaceable possession of by a detachment sent from 
Detroit by Capt. Campbell. The French towns of Southern 
Illinois and Y^incennes on the Wabash, had hitherto been disturb- 
ed only by war's alarms from afar. Their country had changed 
from French to English rule, but distance had yet and was still 
destined to give them a few more years under the lilies of France, 
though severed from the parent stem by the tornado of war, like 
a limb of a tree broken from the trunk. 

The Indians had always loved the French, because they met 
them on terms of social equality. Their ideas of chivalry 
were well suited to the savage imagination. Both were dashing 
and impetuous. A liberal sprinkling of blanched cheeks, whose 
mothers were the honored wives of Frenchmen, were so many 
pledges of that friendship which forest-life had charmed into be- 
ing. Before the Anglo-Americans and English had set foot into 
the great West, the French had been there a century, and, in- 
stead of attempting to deprive them of their lands, had often 
held out inducements to them to amalgamate the two races and 
inherit the country together. This course made any especial 
promise of friendship unnecessary, or, if made, gave it consist- 
ency. 

During the French and Indian war, both sides had vied with 
each other in their excess of zeal to preserve the rights of the In- 
dians. Unhappily for them, the side they had taken had been 
beaten, and now their first care was to set themselves right be- 
fore the conquerors, which accounts for Pontiac's assistance to 
Rogers in conducting him safely to Detroit. But beneath this 
friendly exterior there lurked, at least, doubt and misgiving, if 
not feelings of deadly hate. 

The English, on their part, had formed too low an estimate 
of the ability of the Indians to oppose them, in the event of hos- 
tilities. They had conquered them and the French combined, 
and the savage, single-handed, was but a pigmy in their estima- 
tion. 

Under this impression, the English fur-traders hastened for- 
ward among the lodges of the wilderness, to renew the trade 
begun before the war, and appropriate that which the French 
had hitherto held exclusively along the lakes. With this intent, 
Alexander Henry started for Michilimackinac early in the spring 
succeeding the English possession of Detroit. Ere he had reach- 
ed Detroit, he witnessed abundant signs of discontent among the 
Indians. 

No pains had been taken by the English or Americans to win 
their favor by means of presents or those fulsome professions of 
good fellowship so essential to fill the measure of savage eti- 



'Warning to the English. 105 

quette. Bnt these omissions were not the greatest canse of com- 
plaint. Blows had been inflicted on some of the Ottawas at a 
trading station, by some indiscreet traders,* for which indignity 
retaliation was only deferred. In consequence of these causes 
of disaffection, Henry was obliged to make his way from Detroit 
to Michilimackinac in the disguise of French costume. Having 
reached his destination, he was soon waited upon by a tenacious 
advocate of Indian rights, supposed to be Pontiac himself, who 
addressed him the following terse words : 

"Englishmen, you know that the French king is our father. 
He promised to be such, and we in return promised to be his 
children. This promise we have kept. 

" Englishmen, it is you that have made war with this our fath- 
er. You are his enemy ; and how then could you have the bold- 
ness to venture among us, his children ? You . know that his 
enemies are ours. 

"Englishmen, we are informed that our father, the king of 
France, is old and infirm ; and that, being fatigued with making 
war upon your nation, he has fallen asleep. During this sleep, 
you have taken advantage of him, and possessed yourselves of 
Canada. But his nap is almost at an end. I think I hear him 
already stirring and inquiring for his children the Indians ; and 
when he does awake, what must become of you ? He will de- 
stroy you utterly. 

"Englishmen, although you have conquered the French, you 
have not yet conquered us. We are not your slaves. These 
lakes, these woods and mountains, are left to us by our ances- 
tors. They are our inheritance, and we will part with them to 
none. Your nation supposes that we, like the white people, 
cannot live without bread, and pork, and beef; but you ought 
to know that He, the Great Spirit and Master of Life, has pro- 
vided food for us in these spacious lakes and on these woody 
mountains. 

"Englishmen, our father, the king of France, employed our 
young men to make war upon your nation. In this warfare ma- 
ny of them have been killed, and it is our custom to retaliate 
until such time as the spirits of the slain are satisfied. But the 
spirits of the slain are to be satisfied in either of two ways : the 
first is, by the spilling the blood of the nation by which they 
fell ; the other, by covering the bodies of the dead, and thus 
allaying the resentment of their relations. This is done by mak- 
ing presents. 

"Englishmen, your king has never sent us any presents, nor 
entered into any treaty with us ; wherefore he and we are still at 
war ; and until he does these things, we must consider that we 

* Cass' Discourse ; Rogers' Account. 



106 Indian Conspiracy. 

have no other father or friend among the white men than the 
king of France. But for you, we have taken into consideration 
that you have ventured among us in the expectation that we 
should not molest you. You do not come armed, with an inten- 
tion to make war. You come in peace to trade with us, and 
supply us with necessaries of which we are in much want. We 
shall regard you, therefore, as a brother ; and you may sleep 
tranquilly, without fear of the Chippewas. As a token of our 
friendship, we present you with this pipe to smoke."* 

Matters went on during the next two years with increased dis- 
satisfaction. Frequent ominous rumors of Indian uprising had 
been current ; but little importance had been attached to them, 
especially by Sir Jeffrey Amherst, who still held military com- 
mand of the whole country. 

During all this time, no definitive treaty of peace had been 
negotiated between England and France, and, through some 
dreamy illusion of the Indians, a pleasing theory had obtained 
currency that the king of France had been asleep, and the 
English had taken the advantage of his slumbers to con- 
quer the country — that he would soon awaken and utterly de- 
stroy the English. Fortified by their faith in this visionary hope, 
the Indians throughout the country north of the Ohio river and 
and east of the Mississippi, conspired with Pontiac to bring 
about this desired result. f 

After these alliances had been secured, he plied his seductivo 
arts of diplomacy to the different tribes of the Iroquois, and 
won over the Senecas to his cause ; but the other five tribes, 
owing to the influence of Sir William Johnson, remained true to 
the English. 

Some of the French residents, either through national pique 
to the English or personal attachment to the Indians, were fast 
friends to the latter, although the better portion preserved a neu- 
trality at least by mental reservation, as they would not have 

* Henry, p. 43. 

f Carver relates a phenomenon which, among the timorous-minded habitants 
of Detroit, foretold the Indian outbreak. It is worth recording for its meteorolog- 
ical merits, if not its supernatural. It runs as follows : " In the year 1762, in the 
month of July, it rained on this town and the parts adjacent, a sulphureous water 
of the color and consistence of ink ; some of which being collected into bottles 
and wrote with, appeared perfectly intelligible on the paper, and answered every 
purpose of that useful liquid. Soon after, the Indian wars, already spoken of, 
broke out in these parts. I mean not to say that this incident was ominous of 
them, notwithstanding it is well known that innumerable well attested instances 
of extraordinary phenomena happening before extraordinary events, have been 
recorded in almost every age by historians of veracity ; I only relate the circum- 
stance as a fact of which I was informed by many persons of undoubted probity, 
and leave my readers, as I have hitherto done, to draw their own conclusions 
from it " 



French Population of Detroit. 107 

dared to oppose the schemes of Pontiac, had they been informed 
of them. 

The French population of Detroit at that time occupied about 
100 houses in the town and 50 farm-houses along the river, above 
or below it.* The walls of these were built with logs and the 
roof covered with bark or thatched straw. Their fences were 
constructed with pickets. Wheat was sowed in drills and culti- 
vated by hand. They had no potatoes till the English brought 
the seed. Their horses had been obtained from Ft. Duquesne, 
descended from the English stock captured from Braddock's de- 
feated army.f The Ottawas, Wyandots, and Pottowattomies, 
had villages close by, which, with the French population, gave 
to the place a metropolitan character, to which no other spot in 
the whole country could be compared ; consequently, its conquest 
was undertaken by Pontiac himself. But, before the first blow 
was to be struck, a council was convened. This was summoned 
to meet early in the spring, on the banks of a small stream near 
Detroit. Here were assembled chiefs from all the principal 
tribes of the country, % each supposing himself to be sapient in 
the savage policy of the times ; but at that moment, could they 
have known the real power of the English colonists, they would 
have kicked the war-belt from their midst and flung them- 
selves at the feet of the English, claiming their friendship with 
the eloquence of savage metaphor. Of this, however, they had 
no conception, and entertained no doubt that they could kill off 
the English garrisons in the entire country and bar the door 
against the entrance of any more. This was the aim of Pontiac, 
and it met the approval of his red brethren, without a dissenting 
voice in the council. Plans were laid to attack each English fort 
in the country at a coming change of the moon in the month of 
May. | 

True to the time-honored custom of Indian warfare, treachery 
was the chief instrument to be used in taking them. In the at- 
tack of Detroit, Pontiac' s plan was to gain admittance to the 
fort with a chosen band of his warriors, under the semblance of 
friendship, and, at a given signal, fall upon the unsuspecting 
garrison with their weapons, which were to be concealed under 
their blankets, and kill them before they had time to seize their 

*Lanman's Mich., p. 98. 

f Manuscript Doc. of J. R. Williams; see Lanman's Mich., p. 99. 

X The Ottawas, Miamis, Chippewas, Wyandots, Pottowattomies, Shawanese, 
Outagamies, and Winnebagoes, composed the council ; but there were other tribes 
from remote places, as well as smaller tribes near by, who were friendly to Pon- 
tiac's cause, while it is evident that a few deliberate thinkers had not full faith in 
his schemes. 

|| These consisted of Detroit, Michilimackinac, Ste. Marie, Green Bay, St. Jo- 
seph, Ouatanon, Miami, Ft. Pitt, Venango, Le Bceuf, Presque Isle, and Sandus- 
ky. Ft. Niagara was not to be attacked, its great strength and remoteness being 
looked upon as insurmountable obstacle to be overcome. 



108 The Ojibway Gvrl. 

arms. The success of this undertaking required preparation. 
Their guns had to be shortened by several inches being taken 
from the muzzles, in order to reduce them in length sufficiently 
for concealment under their blankets.* This was done with files 
and saws borrowed from the French inhabitants, who lent them 
these tools in ignorance of the purpose for which they were to 
be used. While this was going on, the Indians kept up their 
riendly visits to the fort as usual ; but one afternoon there came 
in a young Ojibway girl who had previously been employed to 
make a pair of Indian shoes for Major Gladwin, the commander. 
She delivered them to him. and the major was so pleased with 
the neatness with which they were made, that he proposed to 
her to make more of the same kind, and for that purpose gave 
her the remainder of the elk skin from which the first pair had 
been made. This done, he paid her for making the pair deliv- 
ered, and dismissed her. Instead of directly leaving, the girl 
lingered about in a dreamy air of sadness, till she attracted the 
attention of the sentinels, who asked her the cause ; but she was 
silent. Meantime, her pensive mood did not escape the observ- 
ation of Gladwin. She was recalled to his presence, and reveal- 
ed to him the plans of Pontiac, under a promise of secrecy. f 

The next morning was the appointed time for the culmination 
of the treachery, and Gladwin set himself about the work of 
preparation to meet it. The strength of the garrison was about 
300, while double that number of Indians hovered around them, 
hungry for their blood. Every man was immediately placed un- 
der arms, in readiness for the expected visit ; and, in addition 
to these precautions, says Carver, "he sent round to all the tra- 
ders to inform them that, as it was expected a great number of 
Indians would enter the town that day, who might be inclined 
to plunder, he desired they would have their arms ready, and 
repel every attempt of that kind." 

At an early hour the next morning, an unusual stir was appa- 
rent among the Indians, and, at ten o'clock, Pontiac himself,* at 
the head of sixty chiefs, with wooden-clad immobility stamped 
upon their faces, approached the fort. The gates were thrown 
open and they entered ; but what was Pontiac' s astonishment to 
see the entire garrison armed with swords and pistols ? He saw 
at once that his plot had been discovered, but, with complete 
composure, concealed the emotions that were inwardly consum- 

* A French citizen named M. Beaufait had been shown a shortened gun and in- 
formed of the plot, in advance. He afterward assisted Pontiac by his counsel. 

f Carver, who visited Detroit in 1766, only three years after the siege, is the 
authority for this tradition of the Ojibway girl. Parkman quotes other traditions, 
attributing the disclosure of Pontiac's treacherous designs to others, but certainly 
with less plausibility ; for who would be so likely to turn apostate to their own 
people as a young girl whose eyes might be dazzled with the glitter of epaulets ? 



failure of the Short Gun Conspiracy. 109 

ing him, and made a speech. The scene that followed is best 
described by Carver, whose words are here quoted : 

"The governor in his turn made a speech ; bnt, instead of 
thanking the great warrior for the professions of friendship he 
had just uttered, he accused him of being a traitor. He told 
him that the English, who knew everything, were convinced of 
his treachery and villainous designs ; and, as a proof that they 
were well acquainted with his most secret thoughts and inten- 
tions, he stepped toward the Indian chief that sat nearest to him, 
and drawing aside his blanket discovered the shortened firelock. 
This entirely disconcerted the Indians, and frustrated their de- 
sign. 

"He then continued to tell them that, as he had given his 
word at the time they desired an audience, that their persons 
should be safe, he would hold his promise inviolable, though 
they so little deserved it. However, he advised them to make 
the best of their way out of the fort lest his young men, on be- 
ing acquainted with their treacherous purposes, should cut every 
one of them to pieces. Pontiac endeavored to contradict the 
accusation, and tx> make excuses for his suspicious conduct ; but 
the governor, satisfied of the falsity of his protestations, would 
not listen to him." 

Thus bailed in their attempt, Pontiac and his band left, and 
with a full appreciation of the courage of Gladwin, as well as a 
conviction that treachery could play no part in taking the fort. 
The next day, the first attack was made with great fury, but was 
repulsed by the well-directed fire of the garrison. The post was 
soon completely environed, aud while the besieged are economis- 
ing their stinted resources to hold it against the audacious foe, 
the fate of the other English forts in the western wilderness will 
be told. 

The style of warfare practiced by the Indians, though sanguin- 
ary, was defective, inasmuch as they were ignorant of any meth- 
od by which to abridge private rights, even for the public good. 
Every one was his own master, amenable to no tribunal except 
public opinion. Against the French they cherished no resent- 
ments, and at first, with considerate charity, allowed them to 
take a neutral position ; nor did they object to their visiting the 
English forts, for the rights of neutrals, about which England 
and America have lately drawn hair-splitting theories, was a 
sealed book to their barbarous subtleties. This slipshod milita- 
ry practice gave the French who were favorably disposed toward 
the English an opportunity to do much to assist them. 

After the siege of Detroit had progressed a month, there came 
to the place a reverend Father from Michilimackinac, named 
Jonois, who presided over a mission among the Ottawas at that 



110 Massacre at Michilimackinac. 

place. On his arrival, he first paid his respects to Pontiac, and 
the next day rapped at the gate of the fort. He was admitted ; 
but he bore unwelcome news. Major Etherington, the comman- 
der of Michilimackinac, had intrusted him with a letter to Glad- 
win, which he delivered. From it as well as from the worthy 
Father himself, who had been an eye-witness, Gladwin learned 
of the sad fate of Michilimackinac. The Indians had taken the 
post by stratagem, a game of ball being the instrumental means. 
First they obtained permission for a number of their squaws to 
enter the fort. These had weapons concealed under their blan- 
kets. The ball was then batted over the palisades of the fort, 
as if by chance, and permission being granted to go inside after 
it, a pack of savages rushed in at the opening of the gate. The 
squaws quickly acted their part in the bloody work, by passing 
their concealed weapons over to the warriors, and the butchery 
inside the fort began. At the same moment, the attack on the 
soldiers outside was made, where about half the garrison were 
watching the treacherous game. 

The whole number of the garrison was ninety-three, all told. 
About seventy were killed, and, vengeance being sated, the re- 
mainder became subjects of savage mercy. Major Etherington, 
the commander, some months before had been admonished of 
danger by a French resident of the place, named Laurent Du- 
charm ; but, instead of heeding the timely warning, he snubbed 
the informant tartly, and threatened to send the next officious 
bearer of such a message to Detroit as prisoner.* The self-reli- 
ant major was among the few spared, but his soldiers paid dear- 
ly for his impervious resolution. 

Alexander Henry, the trader already mentioned, then a resi- 
dent of the place, had been warned the year before of the upris- 
ing, by Wawatam, a Chippewa chief, who had conceived a strong 
friendship for him as the result of some favor. This u spiritual 
seer" had received a message from the happy land, urging him 
to protect Henry and adopt him as a brother. He informed him 
of the revelation, and made him a generous present. Henry ac- 
cepted the fraternal tie, gave him a present in return, and the 
chief departed for his winter hunt. On the 2d of June, two 
days before the massacre, he returned and urged Henry to go 
with him and his family to the Sault. Henry graciously declin- 
ed the invitation, when Wawatam left with his family, a few tears 
dropping from his eyes as he took his leave.*)* On the 4th of 
June, two days afterward, Henry beheld from the window of his 
trading station, his comrades shrieking under the strokes of the 
scalping-knife, at the revelry of blood of which Wawatam had 
warned him, when he fled from the place and took refuge in the 

* Smith's Wis., vol. I., p. 134. f Smith's Wis. 



Alexander Henry and Wawatam. Ill 

house of a Frenchman named Langlade. An inoffensive Paw- 
nee slave, unbeknown to the owner, secreted him in a garret. 
The infuriated Indians soon entered the very room he was in, 
but in their delirious excitement failed to discover him, packed 
away as he was among a pile of bark vessels ; but the mistress 
of the household, on learning of his presence, feared the conse- 
quences of concealing him, and when she thought of her child- 
ren she no longer hesitated, but led the savages to the place of 
Henry's concealment. The wretched man was dragged out by 
a painted demon, who raised his weapen to kill him, but hesita- 
ted, and finally sent him away with a portion of the other cap- 
tives. 

The ultimate fate of all of them was yet subject to many ca- 
pricious conditions, all of which are related in Henry's Travels.* 
Through the influence of Wawatam, Henry was saved with the 
rest, partly through the instrumentality of Indian eloquence and 
partly by means of presents ; but grave counsels were held as 
to the fate of the whole, and at last it was determined to send 
them to the French at Montreal, where they arrived in the suc- 
ceeding August, together with IT captives from Green Bay, with 
Lieut. Gorrell, their commander. + 

Ere this, St. Joseph, Ouatanon, Miami, and Sandusky, had all 
been taken by the Indians, but, to the credit of the captors be it 
said, with less atrocity than had been practiced at Michilimacki- 
nac. From Sandusky, the commander, Ensign Pauly, was taken 
to Detroit, where his manly form attracted the attention of a 
squaw whose husband had been slain in battle. In him the be- 
reaved widow beheld her consolation, and saved his life by mar- 
rying him — but he proved a faithless lover. Through the me- 
dium of a Frenchman, he soon sent a letter to Gladwin, and a 
few weeks later found means to desert his bride and take refuge 
in the fort. 

After the fall of Michilimackinac and Sandusky, Pontiac re- 
ceived reinforcements, and the situation of the garrison at De- 
troit became daily more critical, and the place must have fallen 
into the hands of the infuriated bands of Pontiac if some of the 
French inhabitants had not secretly, under cover of night, sent 
supplies to the fort to prevent starvation, which was now more 
to be feared than the attacks of the enemy. The fort was only 
a wooden stockade, made of piles driven into the ground, and lest 
it might be set fire to by the besiegers. Gladwin had, by means 

* This interesting pamphlet has been reprinted in several of the early histories 
of the country. 

f Owing to the good offices of the Indians around the place, the whole garrison 
had been spared, they merely evacuating the post and joining Etherington in his 
captivity. The fort at Ste. Marie had been evacuated previous to the massacre 
at Michilimackinac, whither the fugitives had taken refuge, and perished at the 
massacre. 



112 Treacherous Peace Proposals. 

of hot shot, burned every hut near it which might conceal an 
Indian. Pontiac, destitute of anything but small arms with 
which to breach its walls, again had recourse to treachery to 
gain it. 

When Kogers left Detroit in 1760, Major Campbell assumed 
the command, and retained it most of the time till Gladwin had 
been appointed to the chief command, while he held the second. 
During Campbell's administration, he had won the esteem of 
both the French and the Indians, and Pontiac sent him a mes- 
sage requesting him to come to his camp, and terminate the war 
by a friendly council. The message was brought by two estim- 
able French citizens, who, deceived by the fair exterior of Pon- 
tiac, advised the granting of the interview. Gladwin's consent 
was reluctantly obtained by the too confiding Campbell, who 
was willing to go; and, not without misgiving on the part of 
Gladwin, he went, accompanied by Lieut. McDougall. He was 
received with courtesy by Pontiac, but, contrary to his pledges, 
was not allowed to return except on condition that the fort should 
be given up.* McDougall made his escape, but the unfortunate 
Major Campbell, more closely guarded, was reserved for a cruel 
test of warring emotions, against which the world has put the 
seal of abhorrence. 

The time was now near at hand when the annual supplies for 
the western forts were due from Ft. Niagara, and Gladwin, in 
order to hurry them along, on the 21st of May sent the smallest 
of the two vessels which lay in the river beside the fort to meet 
them. Ere she had reached the mouth of the river, while lying 
becalmed, a fleet of canoes rapidly approached the vessel, filled 
with Indians intending to board her and kill the crew. Lashed 
to the bow of the foremost was the unhappy captive, Major 
Campbell, who had been put there under an impression that the 
English would not fire on them, for fear of killing their own 
countryman. " Do your duty /" commanded the brave old offi- 
cer,! whose whitened locks lent pathos to the last order he ever 
gave to his soldiers. At that moment, a breeze filled the sails 
of the vessel, and she sped away, lifting a heavy burden from 
the hearts of the gunners, but reserving the noble captive for a 
crueler fate. Balked of their prey, the savages returned with 
their prisoner ; but he was soon afterward tomahawked by an 
Ottawa savage, in revenge for the death of an uncle killed at 
Michilimackinac. Pontiac was enraged at this base act, and the 
miscreant who did it fled to Saginaw to escape his vengeance.:): 

Unremitting watchfulness on the ramparts, on the part of 
the inmates of the fort, and eccentric spasms of pluck on the 

* Lanman's Mich., p. no. 

f Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. L # p. 26u 

% Lanman, p. in. 



I 



Capture of the Supply Fleet. 113 

on the part of the Indians, continued till the 30th of May, when 
a sentinel shouted forth tidings that the expected supplies were 
in sight coming up the river. All eyes were turned in that direc- 
tion, where the batteaux were visible in the distance, and a burst 
of exultation rent the air. As the batteau fleet drew nearer, the 
forms of the men became more visible. The rowers toiled along 
in silence, till a closer view revealed the painful situation. Lord- 
ly Indians stood erect in the boats while the English soldiers 
were rowing. In the foremost were three savages armed with 
tomahawks and four captives. Nearing the vessels beside the 
fort, they called out to the sailors for aid, and the three Indians 
who guarded them leaped into the water, one of them dragging 
a soldier with him^ both of whom were drowned in their grap- 
ples with each other. Thethree remaining soldiers in the bat- 
teau escaped to the shore under a hot fire from the Indians, both 
from the Canada shore and the batteaux, wounding one of them.* 
All the while, the vessel discharged her cannon at the savages 
in the batteau fleet, and drove them back ; but they landed on 
the east side of the river, and took their captives, over sixty in 
number, to their camp above. The escaped captives, now with- 
in the walls of the fort, told the tale of disaster which had be- 
fallen them. 

Early in May, Lieut. Cuyler, with a detachment of Green's 
Rangers, numbering 97 men, with twenty batteaux, embarked 
from Ft. Schlosserf with the annual supplies for Detroit Tak- 
ing his course along the northern shore of Lake Erie, they arriv- 
ed at Point Pelee, just east of the mouth of the Detroit river. 
Unconscious of danger, they landed to gather fuel, when a band 
of Wyandots in the service of Pontiac attacked them so sudden- 
ly that all but thirty, who escaped in their boats, were taken 
prisoners. To the inmates of the fort at Detroit the fate of the 
thirty soldiers was uncertain, but a well-grounded hope consoled 
them that they would reach Niagara, the place from whence 
they had started, and give information of the catastrophe by 
which their attempt to bring relief had miscarried. Fortunately 
this was the case. They arrived safely at Ft. Schlosser, the 
place where the vessel lay at anchor which had been sent to meet 
them, but, passing them unobserved, had kept on her course. 
All haste was now made by Major Wilkins, the commander of 
Ft. Niagara, to send succor to the beleaguered garrison. Thirty 
soldiers were added to the thirty fugitives, and the whole em- 

* Of the various versions of this encounter, the one bearing the strongest marks 
of consistency has been chosen. Cass is the authority for it. See Lanman's 
Michigan, p. III. 

f Ft. Schlosser was only a sub-post of Ft. Niagara — a kind of starting-place 
above the Falls, for supplies taken from Ft. Niagara by a porterage around the 
Falls. 



114 Torture of the Captives. 

barked under command of Cuyler, who was one of those who 
had escaped. While they are pressing sail for Detroit, let us 
take a view of the situation there. 

The appalling spectacle of over sixty English soldiers being 
dragged by the fort by the hands of the savages, was the dark- 
est hour of the siege. Yells of delight burst from their throats 
as they gathered them into their camp, determined to make the 
most of them in the way of revenge. First, they were stripped 
naked and set up for target practice with their arrows, in which 
the warriors indulged to their hearts' content. But the women 
and children must have a chance at them before the vital spark 
became extinct, and their flesh was punctured with the ends of 
burning sticks by these ingenious tormentors. The tomahawk 
and scalping-knife finished up the unhallowed work. Their 
blood was drank as it ran in warm streams from their lacerated 
veins. Parts of their flesh were made into soup and eaten, and 
their bodies thrown into the river. 

The summer twilight had died away and the sentinels were 
pacing their nightly vigils, when two French inhabitants came 
to the fort and brought tidings of this massacre. The silence of 
death pervaded the place at its recital, till the silence was broken 
by speculations as to the time when relief could come. The 
next day the bodies of their tortured fellow-soldiers came float- 
ing down the river. 

Eighteen days of suspense now hung over the garrison, when 
a rumor came that a sail had been descried. This was June 
19th. On the 23d the news was confirmed by M. Baby, a 
French inhabitant of Detroit, whose discreet friendship had al- 
ready rendered essential service to the garrison, without com- 
promising his influence with Pontiac. The vessel did not arrive 
till the 30th, so great was the caution of Cuyler, the commander, 
to avoid the toils and ambuscades of the Indians along the chan- 
nel of the river, as it curled among the cluster of islands just 
above its mouth. Notwithstanding his caution, however, an at- 
tempt was made by them to board his vessel as she lay at anchor 
in the night, but an unexpected discharge of cannon and mus- 
ketry made them pay dearly for their temerity. 

The fort, now recruited with an ample store of provisions and 
sixty men, they could breathe freer. 

On the 23d of the previous month, Pontiac summoned a con- 
vention for the purpose of enlisting the French in his cause. 
According to the usual custom, mats were spread on the green 
for the accommodation of the notables, who had been invited to 
take places of honor at the grave sitting. Said Pontiac, in his 
speech : 

"Until now, I have avoided urging you this subject, in the 



Arrival of Dalzell. 115 

hope that, if you could not aid, you would not injure us. I did 
not wish to ask you to fight with us against the English, and I 
did not believe you would take part with them. You will say 
you are not with them. I know it; but your conduct amounts 
to the same thing. You will tell them all we do and say. You 
carry our counsels and plans to them. Now take your choice. 
You must be entirely French like ourselves, or entirely English. 
If you are French, take this belt for yourselves and your young 
men, and join us. If you are English, we declare war against 
you." 

To this argument the French replied that their king had tied 
their hands against injuring the English, when he made peace 
with them, and, as a proof, produced a copy of the capitulation. 
"Untie this knot and we will join you." The perplexed orator 
was silent, but his unconquerable will won a few private recruits 
from the savage transcendentalism that always exists in border 
life, and constitutes a class defiant and aggressive, as it is regard- 
less ©f consequences. These neophytes in savage warfare were 
received with appropriate honors by Fontiac, who patronizingly 
extended his hand to them and presented the pipe with gravity, 
and the council was dismissed. 

Pontiac next conceived the design of burning the two English 
vessels that lay beside the fort, by means of fire-rafts, and to 
this end tore down some stables belonging to the French, for 
materials out of which to make them. The rafts were freighted 
with a plentiful supply of tar and pitch, fired, and started afloat 
above the vessels, under cover of a dark night. When the bla- 
zing crafts came toward the vessels they turned aside and passed 
harmlessly down the river, thanks to the preparations Gladwin 
Had made for their not unexpected visit. 

On the 29th of July, a fresh arrival came to the fort. It con- 
sisted of 22 barges and 280 men, commanded by Capt. Dalzell, 
an able officer who had been a companion of Israel Putnam.* 
Major Rogers was also one of the officers of the reinforcement, 
who commanded a few veteran Rangers, for which service he 
had attained a high reputation. Capt. Dalzell was for immedi- 
ately taking the offensive, and an expedition was planned to 
march against Pontiac' s camp and strike a decisive and unex- 
pected blow. 

The following account of the unlucky sortie is copied from 
Lanman's Michigan: 

" On the morning of the 31st of July, about two o'clock, Capt. 
Dalzell, with a force of 247 men, marched up the Detroit river, 
toward Pontiac' s camp ; while two gun-boats in the river were 

♦Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. I., p. 308. 



116 Defeat at Bloody Run. 

pushed against the stream to cover the retreat and take off the 
wounded and dead. Information of this contemplated attack 
had been in some mode communicated to the Indians, and they 
removed their women and children, and prepared for the recep- 
tion of the British troops. A party of warriors was stationed 
behind the pickets upon a neighboring farm,* and another at 
Bloody Run, which is about a mile and a half from Detroit on 
the main road. Here they were concealed in the high grass be- 
hind pickets and heaps of cord- wood, f The British party had 
reached the bridge, when a sudden and destructive fire was poured 
upon them from the cord-wood and the grass. This threw them 
into the utmost confusion. At the first fire Dalzell fell. The 
British fought with desperation, but were attacked on all sides, 
and a vigorous charge was made by the bayonet upon the posi- 
tions of the Indians ; but a scattering fire was kept up by the 
savages from every place that could furnish them a cover. At 
length, finding that their situation was perilous, the British were 
ordered to retire, which was effected without serious loss, under 
the direction of Capt. Grant, aided by Major Rogers. % This re- 
treat was covered on the shore of the Detroit river by the armed 
gun-boats, and the whole party arrived at the fort about 8 o'clock. 
It was effected by driving the Indians from house to house and 
field to field, until a line of defense could be made toward the 
fort. In this action, according to the official returns, there were 
19 killed and 42 wounded. The place of its occurrence is called 
Bloody Run." 

Pontiac lost no time in sending the news of this victory to his 
allies far and near, to rekindle the war-spirit afresh, and new re- 
cruits soon came in, sufficient to supply the places of such as had 
deserted. Gladwin was therefore still forced to maintain a he- 
roic defense, without the least relaxation of discipline. They 
were ever on the watch, for but a brief cessation of their vigils 
might bring destruction to the entire garrison. 

As autumn drew near, Gladwin sent one of his vessels to Ni- 
agara for supplies for the winter ; and on her return, while lying 
one night in the river, only nine miles below the fort, a large 
body of Indians approached her in their canoes, and so dark was 
the night that they were close by before they were seen, although 
a vigilant watch was kept up. The order to fire was immediate- 
ly given, which was obeyed ; but the next moment the Indians 
were in the act of boarding the vessel. The crew, only ten in 

* That of Mr. Dequindre. 

f Consult Cass, Drake, and Thatcher. 

\ A bottle of brandy was at one time sent to Pontiac by Col. Rogers, and his 
warriors cautioned him not to taste it, lest it might be poisoned. Pontiac, how- 
ever, rejected their advice. "He cannot take my life," said the Ottawa chief; 
"I have saved his." 



Peace Proposals. 117 

number, assailed them with hatchets and spears, killing them as 
fast as their heads appearsed above the railing. Still, the In- 
dians, with desperate resolution, pressed against the deck of the 
little schooner with increased force, apparently determined to 
capture her at any sacrifice. Some of them had now clambered 
over the railing and already gained the deck, when the captain, 
wisely choosing death from explosion, to Indian torture, called 
out — " Blow up the vessel!" Startled at this desperate resort, 
the Ineians leaped into the river, diving under the water as a 
screen from the expected flying missiles of the exploded vessel, 
while those in the canoes by her side pulled away in hot haste. 
The Indians, not caring to be blown to pieces, made no farther 
attempts to capture the vessel, and she reached the fort the next 
morning. The captain and one of the crew were killed and four 
others wounded. The six uninjured survivors, among whom 
was Jacobs, the mate, as they appeared before Gladwin to relate 
the circumstances of the encounter, bore the marks of its fierce- 
ness on their garments, sprinkled as they were with the blood 
of their foes, while their spears and hatchets were stained like 
butchers' tools.* 

The season was now so far advanced that that no farther sup- 
plies or reinforcements could be expected till the next summer, 
and the garrison must make the most of the provisions just 
brought them by the heroic crew, though barely sufficient to sus- 
tain them through the winter. Meantime, the Indians began to 
run short of provisions as well as ammunition, and of the new 
recruits who had recently swelled the ranks of Pontiac none re- 
mained through the winter, while most of those who had borne 
the brunt in besieging the place from the first, were compelled 
by necessity to take to the distant forests for subsistence. Some 
of these sent in treacherous peace proposals to Gladwin, who 
accepted them for what they were worth, but placed no confi- 
dence in their stability. Even Pontiac broke through the line 
of his incarnate hatred to the English, sent a peace message to 
Gladwin, and retired to the Maumee rapids to spend the winter. 
Comparative quiet thus restored, the garrison rested while they 
watched through the succeeding winter. 

•Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, rol. I., pp. 320, 321. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

JFt. Pitt Besieged by the Indians — Fate of Fts. Presque Isle, 
Le Bceuf and Venango — Col. Bouquet marches to the Belief 
of Ft. Pitt — Battle of Bushy Bun — Gen. Amherst resigns 
his position as Gommander-in- Chief and Gen. Gage is ap- 
pointed his successor — Sir Wm, Johnson calls an Indian Con- 
vention at Niagara — Gen. Bradstreet marches to the Belief 
of Detroit — Col. Bouquet invades the Indian Country on the 
Muskingum Biver — Holds a Council with the Indians — De- 
mands the Bendition of Captives — Passionate emotions of 
forest life — Preliminaries of Peace — The army returns to 
the frontier settlements in Pennsylvania with 206 returned 
captives. 

On the head-waters of the Ohio the French and Indian war 
began. It terminated in Canada, as far as the French issue was 
concerned ; but the overthrow of the French armies brought the 
Anglo-Americans into close relations with the Indians of the in- 
terior, and on the head-waters of the Ohio the two rival elements 
met each other. Here stood Ft. Pitt, amid the desolations of 
savage warfare. To the west, a continent spread out its vast 
extent, yet unknown ; and even to the east, for one hundred and 
fifty miles, the savage foe had ranged the country in triumph, 
and killed or led into captivity the hapless settlers along the bor- 
ders of Pennsylvania and Virginia. More than a thousand fam- 
ilies had fled before these merciless invaders, to save themselves 
from the fate of the first victims of their vengeance. 

Capt. Simeon Ecuyer, an able officer, of Swiss nationality, 
held command of Ft. Pitt. Its garrison numbered 300 men. 
During the interval between the close of the French and Indian 
war and Pontiac's renewal of war on savage account, twenty or 
thirty families had settled around the fort, under protection of 
its guns ; but as soon as the war-whoop again rang through the 
forests, the few Indian traders of the Ohio country who had es- 
caped the tomahawk, took refuge within its walls, and with them 
the families adjacent.* 

* Loskiel, the Moravian historian, a co-worker of Heckewelder and Post, on 
page 99, relates a plot of the Indians to capture the traders in the vicinity of San- 
dusky, which challenges a parallel for audacity. The traders were told that the 



Ft. Pitt Attacked. 119 

On the 22d of June, the first attack was made, but was evi- 
dently premature in its conception. The fire was kept up through- 
out the day and the succeeding night, killing two men in the 
fort. The next morning, a parley ensued, in which a Delaware 
chief, under the guise of friendship, told Ecuyer that all the 
western forts had been taken, and if he wished to save the lives 
of his soldiers, as well as his women and children, he must leave 
the fort at once and retreat to the English settlements ; other- 
wise they would all be killed by the great army of Indians who 
were marching against the place. Ecuyer thanked the chief for 
his good intentions, to which he also retorted that as a friend he 
would advise him to instantly retreat into the forests, as a large 
English army were on their way to the place. This informa- 
tion, gravely told as it was, nonplussed the chief, and the Indi- 
ans betook themselves to the forest, thinking it might be true. 

Four days after this riddance, there came to the fort a fugitive 
from Presque Isle, bringing the first positive tidings of the pro- 
gress of the war. The place had been taken, and all but him- 
self killed, was the news he brought.* The same day, eight sol- 
diers, almost dead with hunger, came in from Ft. Le Bceuf. The 
whole number of their garrison was but thirteen, under charge 
of Capt. Price. They had defended the place with heroic valor 
till its walls were half consumed by the flames, when, by a se- 
cret exit, they made their escape under cover of night, unbe- 
known to the savages. Pushing their way down French Creek 
to Venango, with the intention of helping to defend it, they 
found the place already burnt to ashes, while the bones and half- 
consumed flesh of its garrison, which lay scattered around, ad- 
monished them of the fate they had escaped. Thence they con- 
tinued their course down the Allegheny river, and finallv reached 
Ft. Pitt. 

The next day, two more fugitives came in, who had lagged 
behind for want of strength to travel, having been accidentally 
separated from their companions. The fate of the three remain- 
ing soldiers never became known. 

Ft. Pitt, now severed from all communication with the outer 
world, kept a vigilant watch for the foe, who was daily expected, 

tribes to the west were about to make war on the English, with the determination 
to kill every one of them. This fate could be averted if the traders would be- 
come their prisoners, by which condition they could claim protection. Of course, 
their arms must be given up ; and, to make the deception complete, they had bet- 
ter be bound. The credulous traders consented, submitted their muscular limbs 
to the thongs of the savages, when they were killed with little ceremony, and 
their goods taken. 

* This informer had fled before the fate of the garrison was known. Christie, 
the commander, was taken a captive 1o Detroit, and soon escaped from custody 
and joined Gladwin. The fate of the soldiers has never been brought to light, 
leaving little doubt that they were killed. 



120 Second Attempt to take the Fort. 

but did not come till the 26th of July, when the adjacent woods 
again became animated with warriors, tented outside of the 
range of its guns, hungry for revenge. Before commencing hos- 
tilities, they wished to hold a council. Shingis, the famous old 
Delaware chief, was the orator, and the following is a part of 
his speech: 

"Brothers, we wish to hold fast the chair of friendship — that 
ancient chain which our forefathers held with their brethren the 
English. You have let your end of the chain fall to the ground, 
but ours is still fast in our hands. Why do you complain that 
our young men have fired at your soldiers, and killed your cattle 
and your horses ? You yourselves are the cause of this. You 
marched your armies into our country and built forts here, though 
we told you again and again that we wished you to remove. 

"My brothers, this land is ours and not yours. If you leave 
this place immediately and go home to your wives and children, 
no harm will come of it ; but if you stay, you must blame your- 
selves alone for what may happen." 

Ten years before, he had conferred with Washington on this 
very spot, and had rendered him essential service when he came 
to warn the French out of the country. Since that time, how- 
ever, Shingis had been forced into an alliance with the French 
by the war-cry of his tribe ; but since the peace with France, he 
had again been an advocate for peace with the English, but, 
withal, a tenacious defender of Indian rights. For this he chal- 
lenges our respectful memory. 

Ecuyer's reply to his inadmissible but not unreasonable re- 
quest (if the savages had not forfeited their natural rights), was 
unnecessarily harsh. He told him the forts were built for the 
benefit of the Indians, to supply them with clothing and ammu- 
nition, and threatened to blow him to pieces if he ever appeared 
again before him. The chief, with accumulated feelings of re- 
sentment, left the council with Turtle' s-Heart and his other asso- 
ciates, and immediately set about environing the fort. It occu- 
pied a sharp tongue of land at the confluence of the two rivers, 
which unite here. Its walls had been built by Gen, Stanwix in 
1759, at so great an expense that it was regarded as a monument 
of British power in the wilds of America, worth commemorating 
in the archives of the British Museum, where drawings of it are 
still preserved. Of course, any attempt of the Indians to take 
it was rash ; but, nevertheless, they crept under its walls, along 
the river, in the night, buried themselves in holes in the earth, 
like ground-hogs, and kept up a brisk but ineffectual fire on the 
place for three days. Twenty of their number being killed, they 
withdrew in the night, and the serenity of the fort was again re- 
stored, as the last echo of savage bedlam rang from the high 



Battle of Bushy Run. 121 

bank across the river. Only one man was killed m the fort and 
six wounded, among whom was Ecuyer slightly. 

To send an army to the relief of the place, but more especially 
to the relief of the border settlements, was the first pressing ne- 
cessity, and Sir Jeffrey Amherst, whose headquarters were still 
at New York, had already set about doing this in June, the pre- 
vious month. He had formed too low an estimate of the power 
of the Indians for mischief, and had been slow in his prepara- 
tions to meet the emergency, but, fortunately for the country, 
the men employed in the service had made up in effectiveness 
for the tardiness of the commanding general. 

To Col. Bouquet was given the command of the expedition for 
the relief of Ft. Pitt. He was an able Swiss officer, who had 
served during the French and Indian war. In accordance with 
his instructions, after leaving Carlisle, he took up his march for 
Ft. Pitt, at the head of 600 men. This place reinforced, the 
whole Pennsylvania border would be rescued from the merciless 
forays of the Indians. 

On the 5th of August he arrived at a place called Bushy Run, 
twenty-five miles from Ft. Pitt, and a less distance from the fa- 
tal field of Braddock. Here he was attacked by an army of sav- 
ages, about equal to his own in numbers, and it is not too much 
to say that the annals of Indian warfare furnish no record of a 
more sanguinary battle. For two days the contest raged. 
Charge after charge was made by the Indians and repelled, till at 
last the victory was decided by a retreat on the part of Bouquet, 
by which timely piece of strategy the Indians, in their headlong 
pursuit after what they supposed to be a defeated army, were 
Drought within a Hanking fire of Bouquet's veterans. A decisive 
victory followed, and Bouquet reached Ft. Pitt on the 10th, with- 
out further molestation. 

Never did the red cross of St. George shine with more resplen- 
dent luster than when, borne aloft by the triumphant victors, it 
suddenly emerged from the forest path into the "open glade that 
environed the fort. The wounded soldiers were tenderly nursed, 
and the garrison felt an assurance that no farther trouble need 
be feared from the enemy. 

The next spring Amherst resigned his position as commander- 
in-chief, and Gen. Gage, a more practical man, was his succes 
sor. However well he was qualified to command large bodies' 
of men, he had failed in the minor details of the late Indian cam- 
paign. 

While Gladwin had enough to do to keep his savage besiegers 
from breaking over his frail defenses at Detroit, Amherst had 
ordered him to garrison the forts that had been taken at Michil- 
mackinac and other places. He further showed his mistaken 
notions of the situation by offering a reward of one hundred 



122 Indian Council at Niagara, 

pounds to any one who would kill Pontiac. Instructions to this 
effect were sent to Gladwin August 10th, 1763,* but there is no 
evidence that he ever fulfilled the indiscreet measure ; had he 
done which, the resentment of the Indians would have been 
stimulated to a higher pitch than ever. 

The borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania were still in the 
breach, and it was determined to send an expedition into the in- 
terior beyond the Ohio, to set at rest any future apprehension 
of invasion. The command of it was to be given to Col. Bou- 
quet. It was equally important to relieve Detroit, and an expe- 
dition was to be sent for that purpose, under Gen. Bradstreet. 

The mistaken policy of Gen. Amherst, by which he had re- 
fused the offer of provincial troops for the service, had been suf- 
ficiently demonstrated by the tardy progress of the war for the 
past year, and it was now determined by Gen. Gage to raise a 
sufficient force of colonial troops to make the two expeditions 
planned for the campaign of 1764 a success. 

On the 30th of May, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed a 
resolution to raise 1000 men ; New York was called upon for 
1400 ; New Jersey for 600 ; and New England for her propor- 
tionate number. Yirginia was only required to defend her own 
borders ; but, besides doing this, she generously raised 300 men 
to fill the deficiency of Pennsylvania deserters from the ranks 
after her quota had been filled for Bouquet's expedition. The 
Quakers were the cause of this delinquency. They were in favor 
of conciliation with the Indians, rather than war ; but at the 
same time there was a ruffian element in that State, whose per- 
sistent practice in the other extreme went beyond the bounds of 
humanity. Many peaceful Indians, against whom no evidence 
of disloyalty could be brought, had been murdered by these 
men.f 

Of the two expeditions planned for the campaign of 1764, 
Bradstreet' s was ready first. Late in June, at the head of 1200 
men, he started from Albany ; thence up the Mohawk river he 
took his course, crossed Oneida lake, and went down the river 
connecting it with Lake Ontario at Oswego. From this place 
Ft. Niagara was soon reached. Here his boats were drawn up 
the bank, and the whole army tented under the friendly guns of 
Ft. Niagara. 

Sir William Johnson had summoned a grand Indian council to 
meet here, and the red delegations had already begun to assem- 
ble. Even to the far distant tribes along the upper waters of the 
Mississippi and on the Ottawa river of Canada, the trusty Indian 
messengers of Johnson had carried invitations to meet the Eng- 
lish Father at Ft. Niagara and listen to his speech. Had this 

♦Bancroft, vol. V., p. 132. f Loskiel ; Heckewelder 



Bradstreet starts to Believe Detroit. 123 

convention been called the year before, no notice would have 
been taken of it, and the messengers who carried the invitation 
would have been lucky to have escaped alive from the Ottawas 
or the Shawanese, and would have been received in no friendly 
manner by any of the western tribes ; but now the situation was 
changed. The war had been persisted in for over a year and the 
Indians were nearly destitute of ammunition, as well as such 
other elements of civilization as their fur trade for the past cen- 
tury had rendered indispensable to their existence. Under this 
duress, all the tribes of the country responded to the call, though 
the Ottawas, Shawanese, Ohio Delawares, and Senecas, came 
with reluctance. 

The object of the council was to secure the friendship and con- 
fidence of such as were wavering in their loyalty to Pontiac, and 
these now constituted the majority of the entire Indian popula- 
tion. Over two thousand warriors were present, all told. To 
each tribe, Sir William, with consummate skill, addressed a few 
words, calculated to turn their wills in favor of the English. A 
judicious distribution of presents and a moderate dispensation 
of tobacco and whisky did the rest. All that was expected now 
being accomplished, the different delegations separately with- 
drew, and the tumult that had reigned around Niagara for weeks 
finally died away, as the last savage band took up their march 
for their distant lodges in the wilderness, each with an increased 
respect for the English. 

The way was now clear for the advance of Gen. Bradstreet' s 
army, and, reinforced by 200 friendly Indians and a few compa- 
nies of Canadian French, he embarked from Ft. Schlosser, above 
the Falls, on the 8th of August.* Coasting along the southern 
shore of Lake Erie, in accordance with his instructions from 
Gen. Gage to act against the Ohio Indians, he first landed at 
Presque Isle. Here a delegation of Shawanese and Delawares 
came to his camp with peace proposals. The occasion was un- 
timely for a treaty, and the little band who proposed it by no 
means represented the policy of their tribes. Bradstreet, how- 
ever, waived the ordinary conventionalities of savage diplomacy 
and made a treaty with them, based on the conditions that they 
should deliver up their captives. No harm could have come 
from this, had the conditions been fulfilled ; but on the arrival 
of Bradstreet at Sandusky, the place assigned for the delivery 
of the captives, instead of doing this, the wily redskins amused 
him further by promising to conclude a definite treaty on his ar- 
rival at Detroit. By this clever ruse, the Ohio tribes had avert- 
ed the vengeance of the English for a time ; but ere long they 

* Alexander Henry had been redeemed with other captives, after being taken 
to Montreal, joined Bradstreet's army at Niagara, and returned as far as Detroit 
with him. 



124 Peace Council at Detroit. 

were destined to answer to another officer, and be forced to ful- 
fill the conditions which as yet thev had evaded. 

The summer was now well-nigh spent, and Bradstreet took his 
departure from Sandusky, and, continuing his ceurse along the 
lake shore, arrived at Detroit, his final destination, on the 26th 
of August. His force was too formidable for even the most hos- 
tile Indians to think of attacking, and his passage up the river 
was greeted with cheers from the Wyandots, who, the year be- 
fore, had taken sixty captives from Cuyler's detachment, and 
had doubtless eaten their full share of the soup made of their 
flesh ; but now they were ready to make peace, not because they 
were at heart better reconciled to the English, but because they 
were unable to protract the war for want of means. 

The garrison were in transports as boat after boat pulled up 
to the landing opposite the fort, to supply their places with fresh 
men. The tedium of fifteen months isolation from the freedom 
of the surrounding country was now relieved. Confinement, 
even in a palace filled with luxuries, soon becomes irksome. 
The glitter of its garnished walls palls upon the senses — the 
bounties of the board cloy the appetite — elastic cushions lose 
their comfort — and downy beds refuse rest. How, then, must 
the heart of the soldier rebound when released from his pent-up 
and comfortless barracks, and he is again allowed to go forth 
without the fear of being shot by the first one he meets ? 

After the first effusion of military courtesies was over, Brad- 
street set about the business of the campaign ; but, in truth, 
there was little to be accomplished. Pontiac, the moving spirit 
of the war, was at the Maumee Rapids, surrounded by a sort of 
forlorn hope of unrelenting spirits like himself, who were not 
yet cultured into a submissive frame of mind. The year be- 
fore, Pontiac' s confidence in the ability of the Indians to drive 
the English out of the country was unshaken ; now he was a fu- 
gitive, and time was required to make a bridge of reconciliation 
over the intervening chasm — or, in other words, to come down 
to the practicable, and make the best of the situation. As he 
could not yet do this, he refused to attend a council to which he 
had been invited by Bradstreet, to be held at Detroit on the 10th 
of September. The Ottawas were, however, represented by 
Wasson, the chief who, in a fit of revenge, had slain the estim- 
able Col. Campbell the previous year. The other belligerent 
tribes, except the Delawares and Shawanese, were represented 
by their respective chiefs ; but the convention, lacking the true 
Indian spirit of reciprocity, was a tame affair. 

Bradstreet demanded that they should become subjects of the 
king of England and call him father, to which the Indians as- 
sented, without comprehending the nature of the obligation. 
Wasson made a speech that, but for its brevity, might have been 



Bouquets Advance into the Indian Country. 125 

littered by the Bishop of London: "Last year, God forsook us. 
God has now opened our eyes. It is God's will our hearts are 
altered; it is God's will there should be peace and tranquility 
over the face of the earth and of the waters." Such were the 
words of the sentimental savage, who appears to have been the 
orator of the day on the part of the Indians. 

When the council was over, Bradstreet sent a suitable force, un- 
der Capt. Howard, to take possession of and garrison the posts of 
Michilimackinac, Green Bay, and Ste. Marie — all of which was 
accomplished without opposition. 

He now started on his return, stopping at Sandusky on his 
way, to enforce the fulfillment of the slip-shod treaty he had 
made with the Shawanese and Delawares on his outward pas- 
sage. These tribes, however, were too cunning to be easily 
brought to terms. After wasting his time in procrastination till 
the season was too far advanced for warlike measures, Brad- 
street hastily departed, without securing the rendition of a single 
captive or any other substantial marks of submission. For this 
inefficient conduct he was justly censured by Gen. Gage. 

Let us now return to Ft. Pitt, from which the expedition un- 
der Bouquet was to penetrate the savage realms of the Indians, 
in places hitherto held sacred to barbarism, if the expression is 
admissible. It had been the intention of Gen. Gage to have 
Bradstreet at Sandusky, fighting the Wyandots and Delawares, 
while Bouquet was attacking the Indian towns on the Musking- 
um ; but this strategic co-operation miscarried, owing to the hin- 
drances in getting the forces into the field, destined for the inte- 
rior service under Bouquet. It was not till the 5th of August 
that Bouquet's army were ready. Carlisle was its place of ren- 
dezvous. It consisted of the Pennsylvania provincials, 200 
friendly Indians, and the 42d and 60th regiments of British reg- 
ulars. On the 13th the army reached Ft. Loudon. Here Gen. 
Boquet received a despatch from Gen. Bradstreet, dated Presque 
Isle, August 14th, informing him of the treaty he had made at 
that place with the Delawares and Shawanese ; but his quick 
penetration readily saw that Bradstreet had exceeded his instruc- 
tions in making the treaty, and that it had no binding force with 
the Indians, and he pressed on with the campaign. 

On his arrival at Ft. Pitt, ten Indians appeared on the oppo- 
site bank of the river, wishing to have a talk with him ; but 
when boats were sent to ferry them over, only three ventured to 
go. These not giving a consistent account of their good inten- 
tions were detained as spies. On the 20th of September he 
tested the fidelity of one of them, by sending him to the Dela- 
wares and Shawanese, reminding them of certain hostile acts 
they had committed since they had signed the treaty with Brad- 
street. This message delivered, he was to proceed to Detroit 



126 Demands the Rendition of Captives. 

and deliver another at that place ; in default of the faithful per- 
formance of which, the two remaining comrades of the messen- 
ger still in the custody of Bouquet, were to be put to death. 

On the 3d of October all were ready, and the first white army 
of Americans that ever penetrated the interior of the West took 
up its march toward the heart of the Indian country. It num- 
bered 1500 men, besides teamsters and a goodly number of 
mothers whose children had been taken captive by the Indians, 
while among the soldiers were not a few whose wives had been 
abducted into savage captivity. On the 5th, the army reached 
Logstown, the place rendered memorable as the spot where 
Washington had held council with Half-King eleven years be- 
fore. On the 6th, continuing its course westwardly, it passed a 
village built by the French and deserted by them when Forbes 
took Ft. Duquesne. On the 14th, while encamped in the val- 
ley of the Muskingum, the Indian messenger despatched 
from Ft. Pitt with letters to Bradstreet, came in. He had 
been detained by the Dela wares till Bouquet's army had penetra- 
ted the country, and, not desiring to keep him any longer, they 
had despatched him back to Bouquet, to inform him that they 
would soon send in peace proposals. 

Bouquet was now in the heart of the Indian country, and could 
easily descend upon the various Indian towns and destroy their 
crops, in case they. should not comply with his demands. Of 
this the Indians were well aware, and, on tne 17th, a large del- 
egation of Seneca, Delaware, and Shawanese chiefs came in 
with peace proposals. The Delawares had violated their treaty 
made wifch Bradstreet at Presque Isle, ana were at their wits' 
ends to know how to frame a plausible apology ■ but they made 
the best of the situation, smothered tneir pride, and asked for 
peace. To these overtures Bouquet, in stern language, reminded 
the Indians of their treachery and of the feeling of just resent- 
ment which filled the hearts of mothers, brothers, sisters, and 
husbands of captives now in their possession. These aggrieved 
relatives were on the spot to receive them ; and he closed by 
saying, " I give you twelve days to deliver into my hands, at 
Wakatamake, all the prisoners in your possession, without ex- 
ception — Englishmen, Frenchmen, women and children, wheth- 
er adopted in your tribes, married or living among you under 
any pretense whatever, together with all negroes. And you are 
to furnish the said prisoners with clothing, provisions, and horses 
to carry them to Ft. Pitt. When you have fully complied with 
these conditions, you shall know on what terms you may obtain 
the peace you sue for." 

The day of humiliation for the Indians had now come, from 
which there was no escape, and they made haste to do the bid- 
ding of Bouquet. Eighteen captives were immediately brought 



Rendition of the Captives. 127 

in by the Delawares, and the other tribes made preparations to 
fulfil the required conditions, though the Shawanese, in their 
despair, were tormented between hope and fear, and at one time 
formed the cruel resolution to kill all the captives in their hands, 
under an impression that the English had come to destroy their 
whole tribe. Happily, however, this mistaken idea was correct- 
ed, and, on the 12th of the succeeding month, nearly all the 
captives had been brought in, and the final conference was held, 
a few miles distant from the place first appointed. 

The number of captives brought in was 206, of whom 32 
males and 58 females were from Virginia, and 49 males and 67 
females from Pennsylvania. Many of them were children who 
had never known any other but Indian mothers, and were in no 
wise different from other children of the forest, except a slight 
distinction in the color of the skin, and even this had been darkly 
shaded by the sun and wind. They were now brought into the 
presence of their own mothers, from whose . breasts they had 
been savagely torn during the French and Indian war ; and ma- 
ny a mother's heart was filled with joy at the restoration of a 
long-lost child, whose uncertain fate had, ever since its capture, 
been a painful image of despair, relieved only by dreams of 
hope. Other mothers, who looked in vain among the captives 
for their lost children, were doomed to a redoubled sense of grief, 
as conviction was forced upon them that they bad fallen victims to 
the tomahawk. No small amount of tender persuasion was re- 
quired to reconcile the redeemed waifs to their natural mothers, 
and, when the parting scene came, their adopted mothers gave 
vent to tears and lamentations, which measured the depths of 
their affection for these objects of their care. Among the youth 
who still retained recollections of their native homes, many were 
unwilling subjects of rendition. Some of them had to be bound 
and brought in by force, and after they had been returned to 
civilized society, took the first favorable opportunity to escape 
from their kindred into savage life. 

Among the adult captives, some of the young women had mar- 
ried Indian braves, and were living in harmonious marital rela- 
tions with their lords, contented to do the drudgery of the lodge 
like good squaws. An example of fidelity on the part of a Min- 
go chief to a young female captive from Pennsylvania, whom he 
intended to make his wife, is recorded, which, in constancy and 
devotion, ought to satisfy the most exacting coquetry of courtly 
etiquette. With melting tenderness, he parted from the object 
of his affections at the camp where the captives were received, 
on the banks of the Muskingum, and, impelled by those emo- 
tions that lovers can understand better than the pen of History 
can describe, he hung about the camp, with no reasonable hope 
of ever seeing her again, and every day brought some choice bit 



128 Return of the Army. 

of food for her. When the army of Bouquet withdrew, he fol- 
lowed it all the way to the frontiers, continuing his daily supply 
of choice game for the benefit of the mistress of his affections. 
Had he entered the settlements, he would have been shot at 
sight. Of this he was amply warned by the soldiers, and, just 
before reaching them, he reluctantly lingered behind, while the 
receding columns of the army that bore away his mistress van- 
ished forever from his sight, when he retraced his long and lone- 
some path to the wilderness lodges of his people. 

Bouquet left his camp on the 18th of November, and arrived 
at Ft. Pitt on the 28th, Here he left a garrison of regulars and 
withdrew with the volunteers and captives to the settlements. 
The succeeding January, 1765, the Assembly of Pennsylvania 
voted him a resolution of thanks for his efficient services. Vir- 
ginia did the same soon afterward. The next year he went to 
Pensacola, where he died. 

In vain may the records of progress in civilization be searched 
for a parallel to the episode presented at the rendition of these 
captives. Here two extremes came into rivalship with each oth- 
er, unshackled by the influences which stimulate lazy intellects 
and feeble purposes by emulation in the world of culture and 
education. Savage life imposes no restraint upon the individual 
except what might come from a loose estimate of social stand- 
ing. A number of scalps taken from an enemy are essential to 
the reputation of a warrior, and a bountiful supply of game se- 
cures fame as a hunter. These honors are hedged in by no mo- 
nopoly or intricate theories based on precedent, and it is no mar- 
vel that the simple child of the forest, whether a renegade from 
white settlements or an Indian, should stand appalled before the 
labyrinthian mazes through which a high niche may be attained 
in the great temple of civilization, and shrink from entering the 
lists for rivalship for a place in this temple, which appears like a 
sealed mystery to him. Under this forlorn duress, he buries 
himself in the forest and studies the physical features of nature, 
with no possible clue to its grander beauties revealed by science. 
His wants are measured by nature's demands only — blind to 
the unfathomable depths of educated longings for more. Eccen- 
tric philosophy peculiar to frontier life sometimes prefers the 
savage state, rather than brook the ills of what, with no impro- 
priety, may be called the loose screws in our civilization, which 
time may tighten up and perfect the beneficent fabric held to- 
gether by them, into a great leveler of all distinctions not based 
on merit. 

[Note. — Immediately after the return of Bouquet to Philadelphia, a book was 
published, giving an historical account of his expedition, which had excited uni- 
versal emotions of gratitude. It was reprinted in London by T. Jefferies, shortly 
afterward, bearing date of 1766. It forms the basis of the foregoing account.] 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Illinois Country — Slavery — The Lead Trade — Laclede's 
Grant — Ft. Chartres — Settlement of St. Louis — Louisiana 
ceded to Spain — The English under Major Loftus, attempt 
to penetrate to the Illinois Country by way of the Missis- 
sippi — Are repulsed — Geo. Croghan — He advances to the 
Illinois Country — Is taken prisoner — Is released — Holds a 
Council with his Indian captors, and brings them to terms 
favorable to the English — Items from his Journal — The 
Illinois Country taken possession of by Captain Sterling 
— Proclamation of Gen. Gage — Early Governors of the 
Illinois Country — Pontiac in Council with Sir William 
Johnson — He resigns his ambitious designs — His death 
and its consequences — Chicago, the Indian Chief 

At the extreme verge of settlements in the great Interior the 
French villages of the Illinois country still nestled in quietude 
among the vine-clad bluffs of the Mississippi. Ever since 1720 
the lead mines of Galena had been worked by individual enter- 
prise, in which branch of industry the Indians had been sharers 
with the French. Philip Francis Heynault had been the prime 
mover in this trade; the same who in 1720 had introduced slavery 
among the French inhabitants of Kaskaskia and the adjacent 
villages, to w T ork the mines under the impression that the coun- 
try abounded in mineral wealth. The lead trade, besides the 
trades in peltries and furs, had been turned toward New Orleans 
since Fort Frontenac had been taken in 1758, during the height 
of the late war, and now that it had terminated in despoiling 
the French of all their American possessions east of the Missis- 
sippi, except New Orleans, it was in the natural course of events 
that they should by every means in their power exert themselves 
to secure the trade of the Upper Mississippi to themselves, by 
making New Orleans, which was still a French port, a com- 
mercial outlet to the sea, for the still immense possessions of 
France west of the Mississippi river. 



130 St Louis Settled 

With this end in view, Pierre Ligueste La Clede, in 1763, 
obtained a grant for trading in the upper country, from M. D. 
Abbadie, the French Governor of Louisiana, which territory 
embraced the entire country on the immediate west bank of the 
Mississippi, of which New Orleans, on the east bank, was the 
metropolis. He immediately organized a company under the 
style of La Clede, Maxon & Co., purchased a stock of goods, 
and starting up the river, reached a small missionary station 
named St. Genevieve, on the third of November. Here he would 
have fixed his headquarters, but as he could find no place to store 
his goods, he crossed the Mississippi and established himself at 
Ft. Chartres. Though the place was still in French possession, 
it was liable at any time to be shadowed by an English flag, ac- 
cording to the treaty of peace, and to establish himself perma- 
nently under French rule, he determined to lay out a town 
on the west bank of the river, as a grand commercial center to 
which the trade of the Upper Mississippi should tend. Every- 
thing was made ready on the fifteenth of February, 176i, and 
this was the date when the ground was first scarred for his trad- 
ing post, where the city of St. Louis now stands. Shortly after- 
wards, he laid out streets from which began the great city whose 
marvelous growth has found no rival in the whole interior, except 
Chicago; nor did its rivalship begin until a late period, even 
within the memory of many of her present citizens. 

Its name, after Louis XIY., is a monument grand as it is 
enduring, of early French power in America.- That the site was 
well chosen, her future greatness has proved. Here the hydraulic 
forces of nature, if rivers may be called such, gather their tribu- 
tary waters from the Alleghanies to the Eocky Mountains to a 
common center, not distant from the site of the city, while below 
the mouth of the Ohio, not a spot could be found above New 
Orleans which could command extensive connections by nav ga- 
ble waters, with any large amount of territory. 

Many of the inhabitants of the Illinois country crossed the 
river and joined La Clede's settlement, in order to remain under 
the rule of their native land, but, alas for their loyalty to the 
Lilies! The French King had already, on November second, 
176*2, by the secret treaty of St. Ildelonso, ceded Louisiana to 
Spain, and ere a year's residence, they were astonished by the 
publication of the treaty which made them subjects of Spain — 
a country which they despised. 

"When "the news came, it was received in New Orleans with a 
storm of indignation — tasking the utmost efforts of the officers 
of the French crown to suppress a rebellion on the spot, rather 
than come under Spanish rule. Abbadie, the governor, was in 
feeble health, and the universal discontent weighed heavily upon 



English Repulse on the Mississippi. 131 

him, when, as if to add to the general turmoil, an importunate 
delegation of Indians came to him from Pontiac, begging assist- 
ance wherewith to renew the war against the English. These 
could not be turned away without a respectful hearing which 
was granted, and a softened reply made by the amiable official 
who survived the accumulated agitation but two or three days, 
passing away with his mind distracted by the vanishing fortunes 
of French power in America. 

The destinies of the immense interior, with its forests and 
prairies, its rivers and its lakes, spread out in a mysterious ex- 
panse on the face of nature, were now, by the fortunes of war, se- 
cured to the English; but how to take possession of them was yet 
a problem not fully solved. In 1764; the English took possession 
of Florida by virtue of a treaty with Spain of the preceding 
year,- and from thence an English post was established on 
Bayou Manchae, on the Mississippi river. From the latter place 
Major Loft us was ordered to push his way up the Mississippi 
with a force of three hundred men, to take possession of the Illi- 
nois country. 

While laboring against the current on his way, with his lum- 
bersome barges, he was suddenly attacked by the Tunica Indians, 
who poured a volley of shot among his men, first from one side 
of the river and next from the other, when he immediately 
retreated to Pensacola; and the scheme of reaching the Illinois 
country by the way of the Mississippi was indefinitely post- 
poned, or rather substituted by a more direct approach to it by 
the way of the Ohio,+ and up the Mississippi when it was reached. 
This route would bring the English direct to Ft. Chartres, the 
stronghold of the French, without a wilderness march among a 
people whose love for them had become a passion. 

*During the American Revolution in 1781, the Spaniards wrested Florida 
from the English, and at the Peace of Paris in 1783, it was guaranteed to that 
power, and retained till it was ceded to the United States by Spain, in 1818. 

fin a letter from James Rivington, of New York, to Sir Wm. Johnson, dated 
February 20, 1764, the following passage occurs, which is inserted to show the 
forlorn character with which any attempt to penetrate the Interior at that time 
was regarded: " The 22nd Regiment, consisting of 300 Men under Majr. An. 
Loftus, is gone up the Mississipi to take post (if they cam at Fort Chartres, in 
the Illinois Country. Query, how many will return to give accounts of the 
the rest?' 1 At the close of the letter, speaking of Gen. Amherst, he says: 
"The ship New Hope arrived from England on Saturday morning; in her came 
an officer who affirms that there is an extreme great outcry against General 
Amherst, w ch is supported by all the army that served in America now in Eng- 
land & that Col. Lee of y e 44th is now employing himself in writing upon the 
conduct of that officer during his command in this country." 

Mss. papers of Sir William Johnson; see Doc. Hist. N. T., Yol. IT., p. 809. 

It evident that the glorious termination of the war was due more to the sol- 
diers than to the leadership of Amherst, whose Procrustean rules were ill adapt- 
ed to bush fighting, — [Author. 



132 Cr ogham? 8 Expedition. 

The situation was complicated by a triple combination of ad- 
verse influences, and required the utmost discretion on the part 
of those entrusted with the service of overcoming the obstacles 
in the way of establishing English authority in this remote 
frontier, where a unanimous feeling went against it. The year 
before Pontiac had been there and exhausted his powers of sav- 
age rhetoric to enlist the French in his desperate cause, and re- 
new the attack on the English. The discreet St. Ange, who held 
military command of the country, was at his wits' end to know 
how to answer the importunate hero whose schemes were as im- 
practicable as his popularity was universal, but by dint of much 
circumspection managed to preserve his good fellowship with 
the Indians by a very respectful demeanor towards Pontiac, 
while he declined any aid to his cause. The irresponsible traders, 
however, did not share this wise policy which would bring no 
grists to their mill, whatever it might do for the public good; 
for when the English came, they would have to either take a 
subordinate interest under them, or quit their calling. Under 
this contingency they did their utmost to inflame the minds of 
the Indians against the English. 

Even in those primitive times commercial rivaiship between 
the northern route to the sea, by the way of the Ohio, in compe- 
tition to the already established thoroughfare of the Mississippi, 
was not without its influence, and a double precaution became 
necessary in the next attempt to penetrate these outermost 
bounds of French settlements, which had as yet enjoyed an unin- 
terrupted peace during the past ten years of sanguinary war. 
Sir William Johnson, who was Superintendent of Indian affairs, 
had in his employ an able officer named George Croghan, who 
acted as his deputy at distant points beyond his reach, arid he 
was selected by Gen. Gage as the Attest person known to advance 
into the country still held by the French and influence both 
them and the Indians in favor of the English, as a preparatory 
step to pave the way for the force which was soon to follow. 
Fort Pitt was the place from which he was to embark on his 
dangerous mission, but he was detained here a month to receive 
the last installment of captives from the Shawaneese, which had 
been promised to Bouquet the year before, and who could not be 
delivered to him at that time on account of their absence on a 
hunt. Meantime, inauspicious news came to hand from the in- 
terior, which admonished Croghan that the sooner he arrived 
among the conquered but vacillating subjects of the King in the 
Illinois country, the less difficult would be the task of reconcili- 
ation. In his command was a celebrated frontierer named Era- 
ser — the same who had pushed across the mountains in 1753, and 
established a trading station on the Alleghany river. He vol- 



Croghan Attached and taken Prisoner. 133 

unteered to start in advance of Croghan, as an emissary of English 
power at the place in question, and with a hardihood seldom 
equaled, pushed his canoe, with a few attendants, down the Ohio 
river to Ft. Massac; thence he made his way across the country 
to the French villages of the Illinois country. He was well re- 
ceived at first, but he had not remained long till the French 
traders conspired to take his life by means of exciting the In- 
dians against him, and would certainly have accomplished their 
purpose, but for the interposition of Pontiac, who was there, and 
whose potent influence was barely sufficient to save him from 
being tomahawked. 

Early in May, true to their agreement, the faithful Shaw- 
aneese brought in the promised captives, and delivered them to 
Croghan at Ft. Pitt; and all things now being ready, he em- 
barked on the 15th, 1765, with a few white companions and a 
" number of friendly Indians," says his journal. 

On the 19th, while on his way down the river, he sent a mes- 
sage to the Shawaneese villages to order them to bring the 
French traders who were among them to the mouth of the 
Scioto river, as they could no longer be suffered to trade there 
without a permit from "His Excellency," Gen. Gage. On his 
arrival at the place, which was on the 26th, the Indians w T ere 
promptly on the spot with the traders, seven in number, for the 
lesson Bouquet had taught them the year before was too impres- 
sive to be soon forgotten, and they dare not disobey. After de- 
livering the Frenchmen into the custody of Croghan, they de- 
clared that noi hing should be left undone on their part to con- 
vince the English of their* sincerity in the interests of peace. 
Having satisfactorily arranged his official business with the sub- 
missive Shawaneese, he proceeded on his way and arrived at the 
mouth of the Wabash river on the 6th of June, where he made 
a halt for some prudential purpose. 

No English delegation had ever before penetrated so far down 
the river, except Fraser's party, and he soon found that the In- 
dians in these deep recesses of the forest, had not yet been tem- 
pered into that submissive frame of mind that had but recently 
manifested itself among the Shawaneese. Here lie remained 
encamped till the 8th, when he was attacked at daybreak in the 
morning, by eighty Kickapoo and Musquatamie warriors. 

Five of his men were killed, three of whom were his Shawa- 
neese allies, and he himself was slightly wounded. He had with 
him an amount of gold and silver, which, with his goods, was 
taken by his captors. The Indians were released, but Croghan 
with his men were taken to Yincennes. They arrived there on 
the 15th, where was a French village of eighty houses, and an 
Indian village of the Pyankeshas close by. Here, for half a cen- 



134 Croghan Released. 

tury, the two races had been living in loving relations with each 
other in this wilderness, recluse under the dense shades of the 
beech, sugar, oak and elm, forest trees that attain unusual heights 
in the rich bottoms of the "Wabash, shutting out the rays of the 
sun from the black alluvial soil. Here he found old acquaint- 
ances among the Indians, who, aware of his official position, 
severely reprimanded his captors, though his journal does not 
inform us that either the goods or money of which he had been 
robbed were restored; but though a captive, he was treated with 
respect. Wishing to write to St. Ange, who held command of 
the Illinois towns, he applied to the French inhabitants of the 
place for paper, which they gave him, but not till the consent of 
the Indians had been obtained. After writing the letter and 
dispatching it by an Indian messenger, his Indian friends, in 
whose custody he now was, conducted him up the Wabash river 
to Ouatanon, arriving there on the 23d. Here he found more 
Indian acquaintances, who were very civil with the distinguished 
captive. But on the first of July a Frenchman arrived from the 
Illinois villages with a belt and speech from an unrelenting 
Shawaneese savage, who, instead of submitting to the peace his 
tribe had made with Bouquet, had fled to this distant post in the 
vain hope that he was out of the reach of the English. The 
substance of the speech was that the prisoner should be burnt. 
But instead of listening to such counsels they immediately set 
him at liberty, with assurances that they despised the message. 
The liberated captive now held counsels with the various Indian 
tribes of the country, including those who had captured him, 
and obtained their consent for the English to take possession of 
any posts in the country held by the French. On the 18th he 
set out for the Illinois villages, but on the way met an important 
delegation of Six Nation and Shawaneese chiefs, among whom 
was the distinguished Pontiac. The whole party now returned 
to Ouatanon, and Croghan succeeded in explaining everything to 
the entire satisfaction of all the chiefs, Pontiac himself not dis- 
senting from the all-prevailing sentiment in favor of submission 
to the English. 

It appears from various items in- his journal that some of the 
inconsolable French of the country had told the Indians that 
the English intended to take their country from them and give 
it to the Cherokees, but Croghan happily succeeded in dispelling 
this mistaken apprehension; and notwithstanding the un propi- 
tious beginning of his mission, it proved a decided success, and 
owing to his able method of influencing the savage mind, he 
managed to turn his defeat to a good account, as the result of 
that natural recoil which is shown alike in the savage and the 
cultured mind, when inconsiderate and hasty action has gone be- 



Croghari's Journal. 135 

yond the medium line of a just or a practicable policy. He 
now wrote to Gen. Gage, Sir William Johnson, and Major Mur- 
ray, who then held command of Fort Pitt, informing them of 
the pacific temper of the Indian mind, and on the 25th set out 
for Detroit, arriving there on the 17th of August. Here he met 
two Frenchmen named Dequanu and Waobicomica, with a depu- 
tation of Indians from Sir William Johnson, as the bearers of 
messages to Pontiac and the western tribes. Col. Campbell, who 
now held command of Detroit, convened a council of various 
tribes, whose representatives were already on the spot in obedi- 
ence to council belts which had been sent to each tribe in the 
country by Bradstreet the year before, while on his mission to 
relieve the place from siege. 

Complete submission to the English was the universal policy 
now. The Miami Pyankeshas and Kickapoos 'begged to be 
forgiven for the inconsiderate action of their young men, and 
hoped their English Fathers would have pity on their necessities 
and give them a little clothing and a little rum to drink on the 
road, as they had come a great ; way. The Wyandots asked for 
no rum or any other favors, but with a commendable spirit of 
statesmanship, exhorted the western tribes to behave well 
towards their "English Fathers, who had taken them under their 
protection," and by so doing, become " a happy people; " that 
"all nations towards the rising sun had taken them by the hand, 
and would never let slip the chain of friendship so happily 
renewed." 

The following items in the journal of Croghan are inserted 
verbatim, as no other words could be chosen of equal historic 
value, to show the situation at that time: 

"24th. We had another meeting with the several nations, 
when the Waweotonans, Tawightwis, Pyankeshas, Kickapoos, 
and Musquatamies, made several speeches to Colonel Campbell 
and me, in presence of all the other nations, when they acknowl- 
edged themselves to be the children of the king of Great 
Britain ; and, further acknowledged that they had, at Weotonan, 
before they came here, given up the sovereignty of their country 
to me for his majesty, and promised to support his subjects in 
taking possession of all the posts given up by the French, their 
former fathers, to the English, now their present fathers; all 
which they confirmed with a belt. 

"25th. We had another meeting with the same Indians, 
when Colonel Campbell and I made them several speeches in 
answer to theirs of the 23d and 24th. Then delivered them a 
road belt, in the name of Sir William Johnson, baronet, to open 
a road from the rising to the setting of the sun; which we 
charged them to keep open through their country, and cautioned 



136 Pontiac for Peace. 

them to stop their ears against the stories or idle reports of evil 
minded people, and continue to promote the good works of 
peace; all which they promised to do in a most sincere manner. 

" 26th. Colonel Campbell and I made those nations some 
presents, when, after taking leave of us, they set off for their 
own country, well satisfied. 

" 27th. We had a meeting with Pondiac and all the Ottawa 
tribes, Chippewas and Pottewa'emies, with the Hurons of this 
place, and the chiefs of those settled at Sandusky and the Miami 
river, when we made them the following speeches — " 

The speeches are brief, and relate chiefly to their keeping the 
peace in sincerity and good faith. On the following day, or the 
28th August, they had another meeting with the Indians, 
when Pondiac made the following speech, which is worth pre- 
serving, as coming from so celebrated a man: 

" Father — We have all smoked out of this pipe of peace. It 
is your children's pipe, and as the war is all over, and the Great 
Spirit and Giver of Light, who has made the earth, and every 
thing therein, has brought us all together this day for our mutual 
good, to promote the good works of peace, I declare to all na- 
tions that I have settled my peace with you before I came here, 
and now deliver my pipe to be sent to Sir William Johnson, that 
he may know I have made peace, and taken the king of England 
for my father, in presence of all the nations now assembled, and 
whenever any of those nations go to visit him, they may smoke 
out of it with him in peace. Fathers, we are obliged to you for 
lighting up our old council fire lor us, and desiring us to return 
to it; but we are now settled on the Miami river, not far from 
hence; whenever you want us, yon will find us there ready to 
wait on you. The reason why I choose to stay where we are now 
settled is, that we love liquor, and to be so near this as we for- 
merly lived, our people would be always drunk, which might oc- 
casion some quarrels between the soldiers and our people. This, 
father, is all the reason I have for our not returning to our old 
settlements; and where we live is so nigh this place, that when 
we want to drink, we can easily come for it. [Gave a large pipe 
with a belt of wampum tied to it.] 

" Father — Be strong and take pity on us, your children, as our 
former father did. It is just the hunting season of your chil- 
dren. Our fathers, the French, formerly used to credit his chil- 
dren, for powder and lead to hunt with. I request, in behalf of 
all the nations present, that you will speak to the traders now 
here, to do the same. My father, once more, I request that you 
tell your traders, to give your children credit for a little powder 
and lead, as the support of our families depends upon it. We 
have told you where we live, not far from here, that whenever 



Indian Proposals to Open Trade. 137 

von want us, and let us know, we will come directly to you. 
[A belt.] 

" Father — You have stopped up the rum barrel, when we came 
here, until the business of this meeting was over. As it is now 
finished, we request you may open the barrel, that your children 
may drink and be merry." 

There were present at this treaty about thirty chiefs and Hve 
hundred warriors. A list of the tribes is given, and the names 
of the chiefs. This was the last public transaction, in which 
Pondiac was engaged with the English.* 

" 29th. A deputation of several nations set out from Detroit 
for the Illinois country, with several messages from me to the 
"Wyandots, Six Nations, Delawares, Shawanees, and other na- 
tions, in answer to theirs, delivered to me at Weotonan. 

u 30th. The chiefs of the several nations who are settled on 
Ouabache, returned to the Detroit, from the river Koche, where 
they had been encamped, and informed Colonel Campbell and 
me they were now going for their own country; and that nothing 
gave them greater pleasure than to see, that all the western na- 
tions and tribes had agreed to a general peace, and that they 
should be glad how soon their fathers, the English, would take 
possession of the posts in their country, which had formerly been 
in possession of their late fathers, the French, to open a trade 
for them; and if this could not be done this fall, they desired 
that some traders might be sent to their villages, to supply them 
for the winter, or else they would be obliged to go the Illinois, 
to apply to their old fathers, the French, for such necessaries as 
they might want. 

*' They then spoke on a belt, and said: Fathers, everything is 
now settled, and we have agreed to your taking posssession in 
our country. "We have been informed that the English, wherever 
they settle, make the country their own; and you tell us that 
when you conquered the French, they gave you this country. 
That no difference may happen hereafter, we tell you the French 
never purchased a foot of our country, nor have they a right to 
give it to you. "We gave them liberty to settle, and they 
were always very civil to us, when they had it in their power; 
but as they now are become your people, if you expect to keep 
those posts as your own property, we will expect to have equiva- 
lent made us, for such parts of our country as you may want to 
possess. [A belt.] 

" September 2nd. The chiefs of the "Wyandots, or Hurons, 
came to me and said they had spoke last summer, to Sir William 

*An historical error of Hildreth, the editor of Croghan's Journal. Pontiac at- 
tended a convention at Oswego, the next year, called by Sir William Johnson. 
— [Author. 



138 The Ottawas and Chippewas from Chicago Apologise. 

Johnson, at Niagara, about the lands on which the French had 
settled near Detroit, belonging to them, and desired I would 
mention it again to him ; that they never had sold it to the 
French, and expected their new y fathers, the English, would do 
them justice, as the French was become one people with us. [A 
belt.] 

" 4th. Pondiac, with several chiefs of the Huron s, Chippe- 
was and Pottewatemies, likewise complained that the French had 
settled part of their country, which they never had sold to them, 
and hoped their fathers, the English, would take it into consid- 
eration, and see that a proper satisfaction was made to them; 
that their country was very large, and they were willing to give 
up any part of it that was necessary for their fathers, the Eng- 
lish, to carry on trade — provided they were paid for it, and a 
sufficient part of the country left for them to hunt on. [A belt.] 

" 6th. The Saginaw Indians came here and made a speech on 
a belt of wampum, expressing their satisfaction on hearing that 
a general peace was made with all the western nations and with 
Pondiac. They desired a little powder and lead, to enable them 
to hunt on their way home, and a little rum, to drink their new 
father's health." [A belt,] 

!N". B. The transactions of the 9th and 11th are written with 
such poor ink, and so faded, that they cannot be deciphered. 

" 12th. The grand sauton, and a party of Ottawas and Chip- 
pewas, from Chicago, sent me word they would come in the 
morning and see me. 

" 13th. The grand sauton came, with his band, and spoke as 
follows: 

" Father — You sent me a belt from the Miami, and as soon as 
I received it I set off to meet you here. On my way, I heard 
what has passed between you and the several tribes that met you 
here. You have had pity on them; and I beg, in behalf of my- 
self and the people of Chicago, that you will have pity on us 
also. It is tirue we, have been foolish, and listened to evil re- 
ports and the whistling of bad birds. We red people are a very 
jealous people; and, father, among you white people there are 
bad people also, that tell us lies and deceive us, which has been 
the occasion of what is past. I need not say much on this head. 
I am now convinced I have been wrong led for some years past. 
But there are people that have behaved worse than I and my 
people, and you have pardoned them. I hope you to do the 
same to us, that our women and children may enjoy the bless- 
ings of peace, as the rest of our brethren, the red people; and 
you shall be convinced, by our future conduct, that we will be- 
have as well as any tribe of your children in this country. [A 
belt.] 



The Chicago Delegation Make Revelations. 139 

" He then said, the St. Joseph Indians would have come along 
with me, but the English prisoner, which their fathers want from 
them, was some distance off a-hiinting. As soon as they could 
get him, they would deliver him up, and beg forgiveness of their 
fathers, as they did at present. 

" 14th. I had a private meeting with the grand sauton, when 
he told me he was well disposed for peace last fall, but was then 
sent for to the Illinois, where he met with Pondiac; and that 
then their fathers, the French, told them, if they would be 
strong, and keep the English out of the possession of that coun- 
try by this summer, that the king of France would send over 
an army next spring to assist his children, the Indians; and that 
the king of Spain would likewise send troops, to help them to 
keep the English out of the country; that the English were a 
bad people, and had a design to cut off all the Indian nations in 
this country, and to bring the southern Indians to live and settle 
there. This account made all the Indians very uneasy in their 
minds; and, after holding a council among themselves, they all 
determined to oppose the English, and not suffer them to take 
possession of the Illinois; that, for his part, he behaved as ill as 
the rest to the British officers that went there this spring; but 
since, he has been better informed of the goodness of the Eng- 
lish, and convinced the French told them lies for the love of 
their beavers. He was now determined, with all his people, to 
become faithful and dutiful children to their new fathers, the 
English, and pay no regard to any stories the French should tell 
him in future. 

" 15th. Colonel Campell and I had a meeting with the grand 
sauton, at which we informed him of everything that has passed 
with the several nations and tribes; and told him we accepted 
him and his people in friendship, and would forgive them as we 
had the rest of the tribes, and forget what was past, provided 
their future conduct should convince us of their sincerity. After 
which we gave them some presents for which he returned thanks, 
and departed very well satisfied. 

" 19th. I received a letter from Colonel Reed, by express, ac- 
quainting me of Captain Sterling setting out from Fort Pitt, 
with a hundred men of the forty-second regiment, to take pos- 
session of Fort Chartres, in the Illinois country. 

" 20th. I sent off Aaron Andrew, express to Captain Sterling 
at the Illinois, and with messages to the several nations in that 
country, and those on the Ouabache, to acquaint them of Cap- 
tain Sterling's departure from Fort Pitt for the Illinois county. 

" 25th. The chiefs of the St. Joseph Indians arrived, and ad- 
dressed themselves to Colonel Campbell and me, as follows: 



140 The St. Joseph Delegation Apologize. 

" Fathers — We are come here to see you, although, we are not 
acquainted with you. We had a father, formerly, with whom we 
were very well acquainted, and never differed with him. You 
have conquered him some time ago; and when you came here 
first, though your hands were all bloody, you took hold of us by 
the hands, and used us well, and we thought we should be happy 
with our brethren. But soon an unlucky difference happened, 
which threw us all into confusion. Where this arose we do not 
know, but we assure you we were the last that entered into 
the quarrel. The Indians of this place solicited us often to join 
them, but we would not listen to them. At last they got the 
better of our foolish young warriors, but we never agreed to it; 
we knew it would answer no end, and told them often, they were 
fools, and if they succeeded in killing the few English in this 
country, they would not kill them all, because we knew you to 
be a great people. 

Fathers — You have, after all that bas happened, received all 
the several tribes in this country for your children. We from 
St. Joseph seem to be the last of your children that came to you 
to beg mercy. We are no more than wild creatures to you, 
fathers, in understanding; therefore we request you to forgive 
the past follies of our young people, and receive us for your 
children. Since you have thrown down our former father on his 
back, we have been wandering in the dark, like blind people. 
ISTow you have dispersed all this darkness, which hung over the 
heads of the several tribes, and have accepted them for your 
children; we hope you will let us partake with them the light, 
that our women and children may enjoy peace. We beg you to 
forget all that is past. By this belt we remove all evil thoughts 
from your hearts. [A belt.] 

" They added further: Fathers — When we formerly came to 
visit our fathers, the French, they always sent us home joyful, 
and we hope you, fathers, will have pity on our women and 
young men who are in gi*eat want of necessaries, and not let us 
go home to our towns ashamed. 

" Colonels Campbell and Croghan made them a favorable an- 
swer, and added presents of powder, lead, vermillion, clothing, 
and two kegs of rum, ending the interview with these remarks: 

"Children — I take this opportunity to tell you that your fath- 
ers, the English, are gone down the Ohio from Fort Pitt, to take 
possession of the Illinois, and desire you may acquaint all your 
people of it on your return home; and likewise desire you to 
stop your ears against the whistling of bad birds (meaning the 
French), and mind nothing but your hunting to support your 
families, that your women and children may enjoy the blessings 
of peace. 



Crogharts Bejports to Sir Wm. Johnson. 141 

" 26th. I left Detroit and arrived, October 3d, at Niagara. 
Here I met some Senecas with whom I had a meeting, and in- 
formed them of my transactions with the several nations, and 
desired them to inform their people of it on their return home, 
which they promised me they would. 

"October 11th. Set off from Niagara, and arrived the 17th 
at Ontario, where I met the Bunt and several sachems of the 
Onondagas, with whom I had a meeting, and informed them what 
had passed between me and the western nations. 

66 19th. I set off from Ontario, and arrived at Fort Stanwix 
the 21st." 

Col. Croghan's Report to Sir "William Johnson, Supt. of In- 
dian Affairs: 

" Sir — Having now returned from the services I was sent upon 
by his Excellency General Gage, namely, the obtaining the In- 
dians' consent to our possessing the important posts at the Illi- 
nois, I present your honor with a journal of my transactions 
with the several nations and tribes in that country, for your pe- 
rusal. 

" In the situation I was placed at Weotonan* with great num- 
bers of Indians about me, and no necessaries, such as paper and 
ink, I had it not in my power to take down all the speeches 
made by the Indian nations, nor what I said to them, in so par- 
ticular a manner as I could wish; but hope the heads of them, 
as I have taken them down, will meet your approbation. 

" In the course of this tour through the Indian country, I 
made it my study to converse in private with Pondiac and sev- 
eral of the chiefs of the several nations, as often as opportunity 
served, in order to find out their sentiments of the French and 
English. Pondiac is a shrewd, sensible Indian, of few words, 
and commands more respect among his own nation than any In- 
dian I ever saw could do among his own tribe. He and all 
the principal men of those nations seem at present to be con- 
vinced that the French had a view of interest in stirring up the 
late difference between his majesty's subjects and them, and call 
it a beaver war; lor neither Pondiac, nor any of the Indians I 
met with, ever pretended to deny that the French were at the 
bottom of the whole, and constantly supplied them with every 
necessary they w r anted as far as in their power. And notwith- 
standing they are at present convinced that it was for their own 
interest, yet- it has not changed the Indians' affection for them. 
They have been bred up together like children in that country, 
■ — . 

*This name should be spelled Ouatanon. It is pronounced We-au-ta-non, 
which doubtless was the cause of Croghan's incorrect way of spelling it; he 
probably never having seen it written. — Author. 



142 Crogharts Report Continued. 

and the French have always adopted the Indian customs and 
manners, treated them civilly, and supplied their necessities gen- 
erally, by which means they gained the hearts of the Indians, 
and commanded their services, and enjoyed the benefits of a 
very advantageous fur trade. They well know if they had not 
taken these measures they could not enjoy these advantages. 

" The French have in a manner taught the Indians in that 
country to hate the English, by representing them in the worst 
light they could, on all occasions; in particular they have made 
the Indians there believe, lately, that the English would take 
their country from them, and bring the Cherokees there to settle 
and enslave them; which report they easily gave credit to, as the 
southern Indians had lately commenced a war against them. I 
had great difficulty in removing this suspicion, and convincing 
them of the falsity of the report, which I flatter myself I have 
done in a great measure. 

" It will require some time, and a very even conduct in those 
that are to reside in their country, before we can expect to rival 
the French in their affections. All Indians are jealous, and from 
their high notions of liberty, hate power. Those nations are 
jealous and prejudiced against us, so that the greatest care will 
be necessary to convince them of our honest intentions by our 
actions. 

" The French sold them goods much dearer than the English 
traders do at present. In that point we have the advantage 
over the French, but they made that up in large presents to 
them, for their services, which they wanted to support their in- 
terest in the country; and although we want none of their ser- 
vices, yet they will expect favors, and if refused, take it in 
a bad light, and very likely think it done to distress them, for 
some particular advantage we want to gain over them. They 
are by no means so sensible a people as the Six Nations, or 
other tribes this way; and the French, for their own advantage, 
have learned them a bad custom; for, by all I could learn, they 
seldom made them any general present, but as it were, fed them 
with necessaries just as they wanted, tribe by tribe, and never 
sent them away empty, which will make it difficult and trouble- 
some to the gentlemen that are to command in their country, for 
some time, to please them and preserve peace, as they are a rash, 
inconsiderate people, and do not look on themselves as under any 
obligation to us, but rather think we are obliged to them for 
letting us reside in their country. 

" As far as I can judge of their sentiments, by the several 
conversations I have had with them, they will expect some sat- 
isfaction made them by us, for any posts that may be established 
in their country for trade. But you will be informed better by 



The Illinois Country Under the English. 143 

themselves next spring, as Pondiac and some chiefs of every 
nation in that country, intend to pay you a visit. 

" The several nations on the Ouabache and towards the Illi- 
nois, St. Josephs, Chicago, La Baye, Saginaw, and other places, 
have applied for traders to be sent to their settlements. As it 
was not in the power of any officer to permit traders to go from 
Detroit, or Michillimackinac, either English or French, I am of 
the opinion the Indians will be supplied chiefly this year from 
the Illinois, which is all French property; and if trading posts 
are not established at proper places in that country soon, the 
French must carry the best part of the trade over the Missis- 
sippi. This they are determined to do, if they can; for I have 
been informed that they are preparing to build a strong trading 
fort on the other side of the Mississippi, about sixty miles above 
Fort Chartres, and have this summer, in a private manner, trans- 
ported twenty-six pieces of small cannon up the river for that 
purpose. 

" I am with great esteem and regard, your honor's most obe- 
dient and most humble servant, 

"GEO. CROGHAK 
" To the Honorable Sir William Johnson, General, his Majesty's 

sole agent for Indian affairs. " 

This letter has no date, but was probably written soon after 
Colonel Croghan's arrival at Fort Stanwix, which was October 
21st, 1765; as it is attached to his journal of transactions. 

In accordance with the original plan, as soon as the success of 
Croghan's mission became' known, the military commission 
which was to follow it, embarked from Ft. Pitt in the autumn 
of the same year — 1765. It consisted of about 120 men from 
the 42d Regiment of Highlanders, under Capt. Sterling. They 
arrived at Ft. Chartres, by the way of the Ohio and the Missis- 
sippi rivers, late in the autumn, and for the first time, the Lilies 
of France fell from the flagstaff, and the Cross of Saint George 
rose in its place on the banks of the Mississippi. This was the 
last official act in the great drama which had despoiled France 
of her transcendent aspirations on the American continent. 

Note. — Col. Croghan's journal has been published in the last edition of 
Butler's History of Kentucky, but is not as correctly rendered as in Hildredth's 
Pioneer History, from which the foregoing is taken. He took it from the orig- 
inal manuscript preserved among Col. Morgan's papers, who was subsequently 
appointed Indian Agent. 



144 Gen. Gage's Proclamation. 

The following proclamation from Gen. Gage was issued by 
Capt. Sterling, on his arrival: 

" Whereas, by the peace concluded at Paris, on the 10th of 
February, 1763, the country of the Illinois has been ceded to 
his Brittanic majesty, and the taking possession of the said 
country of the Illinois by the troops of his majesty, though de- 
layed, has been determined upon, we have found it good to 
make known to the inhabitants — 

a That his majesty grants to the inhabitants of the Illinois 
the liberty of the Catholic religion, as it has already been 
granted to his subjects in Canada; he has consequently given 
the most precise and effective orders, to the end that his new 
Roman Catholic subjects of the Illinois may exercise the worship 
of their religion, according to the rites of the Roman church, 
in the same manner as in Canada; 

" That his majesty, moreover, agrees that the French inhabi- 
tants, or others, who have been subjects of the most christian 
king, may retire, in full safety and freedom, wherever they 
please, even to JS"ew Orleans, or any other part of Louisiana, 
although it should happen that the Spaniards take possession of 
it in the name of his Catholic majesty; and they may sell their 
estates, provided it be to subjects of his majesty, and transport 
their effects, as well as their persons, without restraint upon 
their emigration, under any pretense whatever, except in conse- 
quence of debts or of criminal process; 

" That those who choose to retain their lands and become sub- 
jects of his majesty, shall enjoy the same rights and privileges, 
the same security for their persons and effects, and liberty of 
trade, as the old subjects of the king; 

" That they are commanded, by these presents, to take the 
oath of fidelity and obedience to his majesty, in presence of 
Sieur Sterling, captain of the Highland regiment, the bearer 
hereof, and furnished with our full powers for this purpose; 

#u That we recommend forcibly to the inhabitants, to conduct 
themselves like good and faithful subjects, avoiding by a wise 
and prudent demeanor all cause of complaint against them; 

" That they act in concert with his majesty's officers, so that 
his troops may take peaceable possession of all the posts, and 
order be kept in the country; by this means alone they will spare 
his majesty the necessity of recurring to force of arms, and will 
find themselves saved from the scourge of a bloody war, and of 
all the evils which the march of an army into their country 
would draw after it. 

" We direct that these presents be read, published, and posted 
up in the usual places. 



Early Governors of the Illinois Country. 145 

" Done and given at Head-Quarters, iNew York. Signed with 
our hand, sealed with our seal at arras, and countersigned by 
our Secretary, this 30th December, 1764. 

" THOMAS GAGE, [l. s.] 
" By His Excellency, 

G. Matijrin." 

This proclamation quieted the apprehensions of the French, 
some of whom had fled to St. Louis on the arrival of the Eng- 
lish. Capt. Sterling died three months after his arrival, and 
early the next spring the English troops went down the Missis- 
sippi, and took a vessel from Pensacola for Philadelphia, arriv- 
ing there on the 15th of June, leaving the place without a gar- 
rison."- 

Major Fraserf succeeded Captain Sterling as military governor, 
who, after a short term, was succeeded by Col. Reed. The latter 
made himself odious to the French inhabitants by an oppressive 
system of legislation, ill-suited to the former subjects of the 
benevolent St. Ange. The next in command was Col. Wilkins, 
who arrived at Kaskaskia September 5th, 1768. On the 21st of 
November following, he received orders from Gen. Gage to 
establish a court of justice. Seven judges were immediately 
appointed and the first English court ever convened in Illinois, 
held its sessions at Fort Chartres, December 9th, 176S. It is 
not known how long Wilkins remained in office, or what Eng- 
lish governor succeeded him. It is known, however, that St.. 
Ange returned from St. Louis, and again acted as Governor of 
Illinois, after having acted in a similar capacity over the Spanish 
town across the river.;}; 

Pontiac attended the great Indian Peace Council, convened at 
Oswego in 1766, by Sir William Johnson, agreeable to his 
promise made to Croghan at Detroit. 

Here with eloquence he resigned his mighty ambitions to the 
" will of the Great Spirit, who had decreed that his race should 
be friends to the English," and put the seal of sincerity upon his 
words, with a larg*e belt of wampum. Leaving the council he 
started in his canoe for his home on the Maumee, loaded with 
presents from Johnson to take to his wives. Three years later 
he appeared in St. Louis, clad in the full uniform of a French 
officer, which had been presented him by the celebrated Montcalm 
ten years before. Thus accoutered, he crossed over to the Illinois 



*Col. Records of Pa.,Vol. IX., p. 318. 

fBoth Peck and Brown erronei 
should be Fraser, the same wl 

{Reynold's Hist, of 111., p. 60. 



fBoth Peck and Brown erroneously give this commandant's name as Farmer. 
It. should be Fraser, the same who first advanced to the place from Ft. Pitt. 



146 Death of Pontiac, 

shore to attend asocial gathering at Cahokia. Here he joined in 
the tumultuous gaiety of frontier life, to which the whisky bottle 
contributed its full measure of influence. He soon became intox- 
icated, when a miscreant of the Illinois tribe stealthily crept up 
behind and despatched him with a hatchet. St. Ange, at this 
time Governor of St. Louis, conveyed his body over the river and 
buried it with the honors of war, beside the fort. 

A barrel of whisky was the reward which the assassin received 
for the bloody deed, and an English fur trader, named William 
son, was the infamous giver and instigator of the disgraceful work, 
j>robably under an impression that he had lionized himself in the 
estimation of the English, whose rule had but recently begun 
here. The Illinois tribes approved the act under a similar mis- 
apprehension, but they soon paid dearly for it. The northern 
tribes, to whom the name of Pontiac was still dear, were stung to 
madness and nearly exterminated them in the fearful vengeance 
which was soon visited upon their heads. The horrors of Starved 
Hock grew out of this vengeful war; where, as tradition has it, 
a large band of Illinois took refuge for safety, but were hemmed 
in on all sides till the whole band died with the lingering torments 
of starvation. 

The Illinois tribes never recovered from this blow, especially as 
their potent allies, the French, could no longer protect them as 
they had done ever since 1685, in the days of LaSalle andTonty,a 
period running through three generations. In 1736, when the 
Illinois tribes were in their glory under their alliances with the 
French, I). Artagutte, the dashing Canadian, applied to them for 
assistance in their war against the Chickasaws, in the far-off regions 
of the present State of Mississippi, between whom and the French 
of New Orleans a sanguinary war was raging. 

Chicago, the sapient chief, who was named long after the Chi- 
cago portage, was known by the same honorable appellation, en- 
tered heartily into D. Artugette's plans, and at the head of 500 
braves followed him to the country of the Chickasaws, where they 
were to join their force to that of Bienville, to act in conjunction 
against the formidable enemy. Bienville failed to reach the des- 
tined place appointed for the junction, but the undaunted Illinois, 
with the fifty French soldiers who accompanied them, led in by 
Artagutte, succeeded in taking two Chickasaw forts, but on at- 
tacking the third and last, Antagutte fell wounded, and was taken 
prisoner. Thus repulsed, Chicago led his men back to the Illinois,* 
and the victorious Chickasaws bore in triumph savage trophies of 
their victory to Oglethorpe, the Governor of Georgia, with whom 
they were in alliance. 

*Monettes Miss. Val. Vol. I., P. 286, 287. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The English attempt to prevent Settlements leyond the Ohio 
River — Early Commercial Policy — The Northwest An- 
nexed to Canada — Battle of Point Pleasant — Logan — Rev- 
olutionary Sentiments on the Frontier — Girty, Elliot and 
McKee — The Continental Congress — The Issue among the 
Indians — Expeditions against St. Joseph — George Rogers 
Clark — His Expedition against the Illinois Country and 
Yincennes — Indian Council at Cahokia — Father Gihaidt — 
Francis Vigo — War Declared Behceen England and Spain 
— Its effect on the Illinois Country. 

"With nations as with individuals, a sudden accumulation of 
power or wealth bewilders the senses at first, till time can reduce 
the accelerated force applied to the driving wheels, or, in other 
words, restore tranquility to the overstimulated brain. Though 
England has never been conspicuous for such infirmities, yet she 
was not proof against them, and when her crown became enriched 
by the acquisition of the Valley of the Mississippi, her first de- 
termination was to prevent any settlers from appropriating any 
part of the acquired territory, and to this end King George III 
issued the following instructions : 
"George, E. 

[l. s.] Instructions to our well beloved John Penn, Esquire, 
Lieutenant Governor of our Province of Pennsylvania, in Amer- 
ica, given at our Court of St. James, the 24th day of October, 
1765, in the Fifth year of our Reign. 

Whereas, it hath been represented unto us that several persons 
from Pennsylvania and the back settlements of Virginia have 
migrated to the westward of the Alleghany mountains, and these 
have seated themselves on lands contiguous to the river Ohio, in 
express disobedience to our Royal Proclamation of October, 1763, 
it is therefore our Will and Pleasure, and you are hereby strictly 
enjoined and required to use your best endeavours to suppress 
such unwarrantable proceedings, and to put a stop to these and 

(147) 



148 The Northwest Annexed to Canada. 

other the like encroachments for the future, by causing all per- 
sons belonging to the province under your government who have 
thus irregularly seated themselves on Lands to the westward of 
the Alleghany mountains immediately to evacuate those settle- 
ments, and that you do enforce, as far as you are able, a more 
strict obedience to our commands signified in Our Said Royal 
Proclamation, and provide against any future Violence thereof." 

"GL K."* 

"What ambitious end England had in view through this im- 
practicable scheme has never been brought to light, but it is no 
far-fetched deduction, that in her overweening care to provide for 
her nobility by birth, as well as those knighted for services to the 
State, she intended to parcel out the fairest portions of the 
acquired territory for their benefit. But if such a dream had 
ever entered the brain of any loyal representative of English 
power, the illusion was soon dispelled by the wide-spread and 
irrepressible pioneer spirit of her Colonial subjects along the 
Atlantic coast. Had these been tempered after the pattern of 
the Canadian French, such a scheme could have been made a 
success, but destiny never decreed them to become the willing 
instruments of their own subordination to any power above that 
of their own creation, and the allurements of the forest soon be- 
came irresistible to the ambitious spirits of young Anglo-Saxon 
blood, chafing to distinguish themselves by a bold push into the 
wilderness. 

Spain now held Louisiana, which consisted of New Orleans 
and the west bank of the Mississippi, and an effort to bring the 
trade of the Illinois country into northern channels was now 
contemplated by General Gage and Sir William Johnson, who 
together represented the head-centre of political power, f But 
the extra expense of transportation by the northern routes pre- 
sented insurmountable obstacles in the way, and was destined still 
to do so for the next half-century. 

Meantime, the American Revolution was beginning to cast its 
shadow before its coming, even on the extreme borders of Vir- 
ginia and Pennsylvania, and clearly manifested itself in the 
English policy with the Indians. While these issues were com- 
ing to the surface, the French towns of the Illinois again reposed 
in quietude. 

On the 2nd of June, 1774, the British Parliament passed an 
act which extended the limits of Canada, so as to include all the 

*Note. — Besides the Royal Proclamation referred to above in 1765, aPr^cla- 
mation was issued by Gov. Gage as late as 1772, of similar import, which may 
be found in Dillon's Ind. p. 86. The proclamation to Gov. Penn here quoted is 
taken from The Colonial Records of Penn. Vol. IX, p. 331. 

fDoc. Hist. N. Y., Vol. II, pp. 340-342. 



Battle of Point Pleasant. 149 

territory north of the Ohio River to the lakes. This extraor- 
dinary measure was regarded by the English Colonies as a bid 
for Canadian loyalty, in the event of an open rupture. But it 
was soon followed by other British measures, which gave con- 
vincing proofs that in such an event the British intended to 
make the most out of an alliance with the Indians that their 
services could bring to the cause. 

Early in 1773, Lord Dunmore, the last Colonial Governor of 
Virginia, withdrew the troops from Fort Pitt. The next year, 
owing to some cold-blooded and unprovoked murders, committed 
by Cresap, Greathouse and others against peaceable Indians, 
the war-whoop again rung along the border, and a large army was 
raised to protect the frontier against the exasperated savages. 
A large detachment of it were ordered to advance down the Ohio 
river, under command of Col. Lewis. Peaching Point Pleas- 
ant, at the mouth of the Kanhaway, while the army lay en- 
camped, October 10th, 1774, it was attacked by a heavy force of 
Indians, under the celebrated Chiefs Cornstalk, Bed Hawk and 
Logan. The battle raged from sunrise to one o'clock with un- 
flinching courage on both sides. The loss of the whites was 
double that of the Indians, but the desperate resolution of the 
former finally prevailed, and the Indians, mostly Shawanese, 
withdrew during the succeeding night. 

The family of Logan were among the murdered victims of 
Cresap, which fired the resentment of the hitherto peacable hero 
to desperation, and drew from him the speech that gave him im- 
perishable fame. 

The following extract from the American Pioneer, gives the 
speech verbatim, together with the circumstances connected with 
its immediate reception: 

"In the spring of the year 1774, a robbery was committed by 
some Indians on certain land adventurers on the rivei Ohio. 
The whites in that quarter, according to their custom, undertook 
to punish this outrage in a summary way. Captain Michael 
Cresap, and a certain Daniel Greathouse, leading on these par- 
ties, surprised, at different times, traveling and hunting parties 
of the Indians, having their women and children with them, and 
murdered many. Among these were unfortunately the family 
of Logan, a chief celebrated in peace and war, and long distin- 
guished as the friend of the whites. This unworthy return pro- 
voked his vengeance. He accordingly signalized himself in the 
war which ensued. In the autumn of the same year a decisive 
battle was fought at the mouth of the Great Kanhaw T ay, between 
the collected forces of the Shawanese, Mingo^s, and Delawares, and 
a detachment of the Virginia militia. The Indians were de- 
feated and sued for peace. Logan, however, disdained to be seen 



150 Log arts Speech. 

among the suppliants. But lest the sincerity of a' treaty should 
be disturbed, from which so distinguished a chief absented him- 
self, he sent, by a messenger, the following speech to be delivered 
to Lord Dunmore. 

" * I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Lo- 
gan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came 
cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of 
the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, 
an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that 
my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, 'Logan is the 
friend of white men.' I had even thought to have lived with 
you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last 
spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations 
of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There 
runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. 
This called on me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed 
many; I have fully glutted my vengeance: for my country I re- 
joice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that 
mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not 
turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Lo- 
gan? Not one.'" 

Mr. Jefferson wrote his Notes on Virginia, as he states, in 
1781-2. They were first published in Paris, and afterwards in the 
United States. In 1797, great excitement was raised against 
him by the Cresap interest, in which it was, among other things, 
insinuated that he wrote the speech himself. Mr. Jefferson de- 
fended himself in an appendix to his Notes. 

The Indian towns were now at the mercy of the victors, espe- 
cially when the main body advanced across the Ohio, under 
Dunmore himself. But instead of pushing the defeated Indians 
to extremities, he convened a council and made peace with them 
on generous terms. 

At Fort Gower, near the mouth of the river Hockhocking, 
on the 5th of November, 1774, the officers of Dunmore's army 
held a meeting, at which one of them spoke as follows: — "Gen- 
tlemen: Having now concluded the campaign, by the assistance 
of Providence, with honor and advantage to the colony and our- 
selves, it only remains that we should give our country the 
strongest assurance that we are ready at all times, to the utmost 
of our power, to maintain and defend her just rights and privi- 
leges. We have lived about three months in the woods, without 
any intelligence from Boston, or from the delegates from Phila- 
delphia.* It is possible, from the groundless reports of design- 
ing men, that our country may be jealous of the use such a 

*The Continental Congress, which convened on the 5th September, 1774. 



The American Revolution Begins. 151 

body would make of arms in their hands at this critical junc- 
ture. That we are a respectable body is certain, when it is con- 
sidered that we can live weeks without bread or salt; that we 
can sleep in the open air, without any covering but that of the can- 
opy of heaven ; and that our men can march and shoot with any in 
the known world. Blessed with these talents, let us solemnly en- 
gage to one another, and our country in particular, that we will 
use them to no purpose but for the honor and advantage of 
America in general, and of Yirginia in particular. It behooves, 
us, then, for the satisfaction of our country, that we should give 
them our real sentiments, by way of resolves, at this very alarm- 
ing crisis." The following resolutions were then adopted by the 
meeting, without a dissenting voice, and ordered to be published 
in the Yirginia Gazette. 

" Resolved, That we will bear the most faithful allegiance to 
his majesty, King George the Third, while his majesty delights 
to reign over a brave and free people; that we will, at the ex- 
pense of life and everything dear and valuable, exert ourselves 
in support of the honor of his crown, and the dignity of the 
British Empire. But as the love of liberty, and attachments 
to the real interests and just rights of America, outweigh every 
other consideration, we resolve that we will exert every power 
within us for the defense of American liberty, and for the sup- 
porting of her just rights and privileges; not in any precipitate, 
riotous, and tumultuous manner, but when regularly called forth 
by the unanimous voice of our countrymen." 

These words may be taken as a representative type of the back- 
woods feeling which two years later declared itself in an open 
declaration of Independence, but yet there were among these 
headstrong borderers a few men, intensified in their hatred to 
civilized society, who cast their lot among the Indians as a choice, 
and allied themselves to the English cause, not from principle, 
but as a means wherewith to ventilate their spite against any- 
thing that stood in the way of their low-bred ambition. Simoii 
Girty, George Elliot and Alexander McKee were noted examples 
of this kind of nondescript waywardness, destined to exert a po- 
tent influence in the coming struggle. 

In 1771 the first Continental Congress assembled in Philadel- 
phia. The next year, 1775, Gen. Gage, awakening one morning 
in his quarters in Boston, beheld with astonishment the heights 
of Bunker Hill fortified. A fierce battle followed. Canada was 
invaded the same year by Arnold and Montgomery. 

The same year, while the Continental Congress was holding 
its second session in Philadelphia, Commissioners were appointed 
to occupy Fort Pitt for the purpose of making treaties with the 



152 Indian Ideas of the Revolution. 



Indians in favor of the forthcoming government. To offset this 
policy, the British inaugurated a similar one for their own ben- 
efit from Detroit. As a result, two prominent Delaware Chiefs, 
Buckongahelas and "White Eyes, took the stump among the 
denizens of the forest as exponents of the rival claims of the 
belligerants to savage support. Buckongahelas, the friend of 
the English, spoke first, as follows : 

"Friends! listen to what I say to you! You see a great and 
powerful nation divided! You see the father fighting against the 
son, and the son against the father! The father has called on his 
Indian children to assist him in punishing his children, the 
Americans, who have become refractory. I took time to con- 
sider what I should do — whether or not I should receive the 
hatchet of my father to assist him. At first I looked upon it as 
a family quarrel, in which I was not interested. However, at 
length, it appeared to me that the father was in the right, and 
his children deserved to be punished a little. That this must be 
the case, I concluded from the many cruel acts his offspring had 
committed, from time to time, on his Indian children, in en- 
croaching on their land, stealing their property, shooting at and 
murdering, without cause, men, women, and children. Yes, 
even murdering those who, at all times, had been friendly to 
them, and were placed for protection under the roof of their 
fathers' house — the father himself standing sentry at the door at 
the time.* Friends! often has the father been obliged to settle 
and make amends for" the wrongs and mischiefs done us by his 
refractory children, yet these do not grow better. No! they re- 
main the same and will continue to be so as long as we have any 
land left us. Look back at the murders committed by the Long- 
knives on many of our relations, who lived peaceable neighbors 
to them on the Ohio. Did they not kill them without the least 
provocation? Are they, do you think, better now than they were 
then?" 

To this speech White Eyes, the friend of the new government, 
then without a name, replied: 

" Suppose a father had a little son whom he loved and in- 
dulged while young, but, growing up to be a youth, began to 
think of having some help from him, and, making up a small 
pack, bade him carry it for him. The boy cheerfully takes the 
pack, following his father with it. The father, finding the boy 
willing and obedient, continues in his way; and, as the boy 
grows stronger, so the father makes the pack in proportion larger 
— yet as long as the boy is able to carry the pack, he does so 

*Alludin£ to the murder of the Conestoga Indians.— See Gordon's History 
of Pennsylvania, 405. 



White Eyes' Speech Printed hj Congress. 153 

■without grumbling. At length, however, the boy, having arrived 
at manhood, while the father is making np the pack for him, in 
comes a person of an evil disposition, and, learning who was the 
carrier of the pack, advises the father to make it heavier, for 
surely the son is able to carry a large pack. The father, listen- 
ing rather to the bad adviser than consulting his own judgment 
and the feelings of tenderness, follows the advice of the hard- 
hearted adviser, and makes up a heavy load for his son to carry. 
The son, now grown up, examining the weight of the load he is 
to carry, addresses the parent in these words: * Dear father, this 
pack is too heavy for me to carry — do, pray, lighten it. 1 am 
willing to do what I can, bnt I am unable to carry this load.' 
The father's heart having, by this time, become hardened, and 
the bad adviser calling to him, 'whip him, if he disobeys and 
refuses to carry the pack,' now in a peremptory tone orders his 
son to take up the pack and carry it off, or he will whip him, and 
already takes up a stick to beat him. ' So! ' says the son, ; am I 
to be served thus for not doing what I am unable to do? Well, 
if entreaties avail nothing with you, father — and it is to be de- 
cided by blows whether or not I am able to carry a pack so 
heavy — then I have no other choice left me but that of resisting 
your unreasonable demand by my strength; and so, striking each 
other, we may see who is the strongest " 

This absurd metaphor was considered worth preserving by 
both governments, as models of that gushing style of logic 
wherewith to influence the Indian mind. Buckongahelas' speech 
was printed by officers in the British Indian Department, and 
White Eyes' speech was printed by a committee appointed by 
the Continental Congress on the 13th of July, 1775. * 

The British had strong garrisons at Detroit and Michilimae- 
inac at this time, and a small garrison at St. Joseph, to preserve 
their interests at the Southern extremity of Lake Michigan, for 
even in that early day this locality was regarded with favor. But 
St. Joseph was looked upon as a place of more promise than 
Chicago, on account of the superiority of her river as a harbor. 

While the brains and the muscle inherited from the ancient 
Briton's were laving the dimension stone on the Atlantic coast 
for a new nation, the French inhabitants of Yincennes and the 
Illinois country, in blissful ignorance of the ruling policy of the 
country, were cultivating their fields in common, and sharing the 
harvest of a summer's toil with the harmony of bees. By the 
year 1777, however, one year after the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, an erratic emigrant from Pennsylvania, named Tom 

*American Archives, 4th S. Vol. II, p. I860. 



15-i /St. Joseph Taken from the Biitish. 

Brady, who had settled at Cahokia, planned an expedition against 
the British post of St. Joseph. The place was garrisoned by 21 
soldiers, but Bardy's party, relying upon the prestige of a sur- 
sprise, felt confidence in their ability to take it, although their 
own force numbered but 16 men. Accordingly they took ad- 
vantage of night to come upon the place, when the astonished 
garrison gave themselves up as prisoners. On returning, the in- 
vaders had proceeded no further than the Calumet river, when 
they were attacked by a party of British and Indians, number- 
ing 300. Two of Brady's party were killed, and Brady, with the 
remainder of his part} T , taken prisoners. !N"ot long after- 
wards, he managed to make his escape, and threaded the forest 
back to his native place in Pennsylvania. Subsequently he re- 
turned to Cahokia, where he became Sheriff of St. Clair county 
in 1790 * 

Early the next spring a daring Frenchman named Paulette 
Maize, enlisted a force of 65 men from the French towns of the 
Illinois, and from St. Louis, and marched against the same place, 
to re-take it. The expedition was successful, and all the furs 
and peltries in the fort were taken from the British as the spoil 
of war. Many of the most prominent citizens of Cahokia were 
in this expedition. f 

Returning to the frontier of English settlements, we find such 
dauntless spirits as Dr. Walker, Boone, Kenton, Zane, Harrod, 
McAffee, and others, pushing into the wilderness realms of Ken- 
tucky, building stockades and making settlements, while the 
forest was infested with British emissaries, urging the Indians 
to take up the tomahawk against the Americans. 

Prominent among these pioneer spirits was Col. Geo. Pogers 
Clark, a native of Albemarle county, Ya. All these backwoods- 
men were conspicuous for their loyalty to the cause of American 
Independence, and the field they had chosen wherewith to bring 
aid to that cause, was adapted to their frontier accomplishments, 
and proved effectual, both as a diversion and a palliation, to di- 
minish the force of Indian invasion on the frontier. This was 
the immediate incentive of Clark, in a plan of which he was the 
first projector, to take possession of Vincennes and the Illinois 
villages, and set up the authority of the new government in those 
distant posts, as a nucleus of power round which the Indians 
could gather. The infant settlements of Kentucky were then 
begun, and Clark was among them, but left for Virginia on the 
first of October, 1777, for the purpose of laying his plan before 

*Western Annals, p. 696. Reynold's Hist. 111. p. 68. 
fWestern Annals, p. 697. 



Clarice Takes Kashaskia. 155 

Patrick Henry, the Governor. On the 10th of December he 
had an interview with him, and laid his plans before him. 

After several interviews, Governor Henry gave his consent, 
and immediate preparations were made to put them into execu- 
tion. The utmost secresv was necessary to its success, for had it 
been known in advance, the English could have sent a sufficient 
force from Detroit to take the whole party prisoners ere they 
arrived on the ground. As a blind to the real destination of the 
expedition, Governor Henry first gave Clark instructions to pro- 
ceed to the Kentucky settlements with his force, for the purpose 
of defending them against Indian attack. These were published, 
and gave rise t# some murmurs among the revolutionary spirits 
of the border that soldiers should be sent on such an errand 
when they were needed in the front to fight the British. 

The expedition embarked from Pittsburgh, " shot the falls," 
as Clark expressed it, at Lowisburg. on the 24th of June, kept 
on down the river to a little above Fort Massac, fifty miles above 
the mouth of the Ohio, and from thence they marched across the 
country to Kaskaskia. 

On the 4th of July, 17TS, when night had shed its gloom over 
river, grove and prairie, the people of Kaskaskia were startled 
by the cry, " If any one enters the streets, he shall he shot/" 
The terrified inhabitants remained in their houses during the 
fearful night, and when morning came a few of the principal 
citizens were seized and put in irons. Every avenue of escape 
was cut off, and the wretched inhabitants, who had been told by 
their British Governor Eochblave, that the Longknives (Ameri- 
cans) were barbarous and cruel to the last degree, began to think 
their barbarity had not been overrated, nor were their fears 
quieted on beholding the uncouth motions of their conquerors, 
so different from the graceful manners of the French, who had 
brought with them the blandishments of Paris to be reproduced 
in the American wilderness. 

Under these painful forebodings, Gibault, the Priest, and 
others, with deep humility, approached the General w T ho com- 
manded the rough band, at whose feet the town lay prostrate. 
The very first attempt to parley with him was embarrassing, for 
on entering his quarters, among the muscular backwoods officers 
who were around him, there was no distinction in etiquette or 
dress, and the perplexed Priest was obliged to ask who the com- 
mander was. On being informed, a painful pause ensued for the 
want of words wherewith to frame the requests he was about to 
make. The suspense over, Gibault, in an attitude of supplica- 
tion, begged the privilege that his people might depart in peace, 
without being separated from their families, and hoped a small 
allowance of provisions might be retained by them for their iin- 



156 The Grand Door. 

mediate wants; which mild request was accompanied with an 
assurance that many of the inhabitants had frequently expressed 
themselves in favor of the Americans in their contest with the 
mother country. 

Up to this moment Clark had wrought upon their fears only. 
Now came the sunny side to the front, and never did the nobility 
masked beneath a rough exterior, in the bosom of the forest 
ranger, show to better advantage. In brief words he informed 
them that the Americans came not to deprive them of their lib- 
erty, or to interfere with their religion, or to plunder them of 
their property. The shackles were now taken from the captives 
and freedom proclaimed to all. The people were now in trans- 
ports. The bells were rung and the streets were vocal with song, 
and gayety reigned throughout the town. 

On the 6th of February France had acknowledged the Inde- 
pendence of the United States. The news came to Gen. Clark 
while on his way down the river, in a letter from Col. Campbell, 
at Fort Pitt. Nothing could have been more timely for Clark, 
as he depended on an accession to his number from the French 
in. order to complete his plans for the conquest of the country, 
and this news would help his cause. He therefore lost no time 
in proceeding to business, and opened recruiting quarters at once. 
The ranks for a company were soon filled with newly enlisted 
Frenchmen, eager to serve in a cause that had already been es- 
poused by their country. Cahokia and all the other French 
towns acquiesced in the new order, and contributed their quota 
to fill the ranks of Clark's little army. 

The success which had thus far attended Clark was but the first 
steps in the work before him. The whole country was full of 
Indians who had been conquered by the English in the recent 
war, and were now reconciled to them, all the more as they were 
dependent on them for supplies. 

During the progress of the American Revolution thus far, the 
English traders and agents had been busy in the forests, inflam- 
ing the minds of the Indians against the Americans by the most 
absurd falsehoods, impressed upon their savage sensibilities hj 
forest eloquence. To overcome this influence was all important, 
and Clark set about the business with masterly skill. The most 
influential Indian chief in the whole country was The Grand 
Door, so called be ause his influence was so potent over the 
tribes along the Wabash river that no one would presume to en- 
ter its valley on an important mission, without first consulting 
him. To Capt. Helm, one of Gen. Clark's officers, was entrusted 
this delicate business. The first thing to do was to explain to 
The Grand Door the nature of the contest between the Ameri- 
cans and the English in such a manner as to leave no doubt in 



Indian Councils. 157 

his majesty's savage instincts as to the justice, and, especially, 
the ultimate success of the American cause — the latter point be- 
ing no less important in Indian diplomacy than in civilized. 

With these instructions Capt. Helm started for the headquar- 
ters of the Grand Door, located in a Piankeshaw village close by 
Yincennes. Arriving safely at the latter place, he was well re- 
ceived by the French inhabitants, there being no English gar- 
rison there at the time. The Door was then sent for, and on his 
arrival a letter was given him from Gen. Clark. He received it 
with becoming dignity, and promised to lay its contents before 
his people. For several days they held council over the matter, 
when the chief returned to Yincennes and announced to Capt. 
Helm that he was now a Big Knife, meaning that he had es- 
poused the cause of the Americans. The evening was spent in 
merriment suited to the occasion. 

Xo sooner was it known that The Grand Door had become a 
" Big Knife," than all the other tribes of the country visited 
Capt. Helm's quarters at Yincennes, and gave in their adhesion 
to the Americans. The news of this accession of strength was 
promptly sent by an Indian messenger to Gen. Clark, at Kaskas- 
kia. Meantime, it was soon spread among the tribes throughout 
the entire Illinois country. A council was convened at Cahokia, 
with their representative chiefs, to whom Gen. Clark, after ex- 
plaining to them the nature of the contest between the Ameri- 
icans and the English, made the following speech to them : 

" You can now judge who is in the right. I have already told 
you who I am. Here is a bloody belt and a white one; take 
which you please. Behave like men: and don't let your being 
surrounded by the Big Knives cause you to take up the one belt 
with your hands, while your hearts take up the other. If you 
take the bloody path you shall leave the town in safety, and may 
u;o and join your friends, the English. We will then try, like 
warriors, who can put the most stumblingblocks in each other's 
way. and keep our clothes longest stained with blood. If, on the 
other hand, you should take the path of peace, and be received as 
brothers to the Big Knives, with their friends, the French, should 
you then listen to bad birds that may be flying through the land, 
you will no longer deserve to be counted as men, but as creatures 
with two tongues, that ought to be destroyed without listening 
to anything that you might say. As I am convinced you never 
heard the truth before, f do not wish you to answer before you 
have taken time to counsel. AYe will, therefore, part this even- 
ing: and when the Great Spirit shall bring us together again, 
let us speak and think like men with but one heart and one 
tongue." 



158 Vincennes Occupied by the British. 

The next day the chiefs returned, and before the Council 
fires, which were still burning, presented Clark the sacred Pipe, 
after waving it toward the heavens and the earth, an impressive 
way of calling heaven and earth to witness their bond of peace 
and alliance with the Big Knives. News of these successes 
were now sent to Gov. Henry, of Yirginia, when, at a session of 
the General Assembly, an act was passed laying out a county 
called Illinois county, which embraced Yincennes, as well as the 
French villages of the Illinois. But before suitable officers 
could arrive on the ground to carry the act into effect, Henry 
Hamilton, the British Lieut. Governor of Detroit, came down 
upon Yincennes with 30 British regulars, 50 French soldiers en- 
listed at Detroit, and 400 Indian Warriors. 

He arrived at the place on the 15th of December. Soon as he 
was within hailing distance Capt. Helm, who was still there, 
cried out "Halt! " This stopped the advance of Hamilton, who 
in turn demanded a surrender of the garrison. " On what 
terms?" demanded the tenacious defender. "The honors of 
war," was the reply. The fort was surrendered, with its garrison 
of one soldier, named Henry, and one officer. Helm himself!* 

Capt. Helm was held as prisoner, and the French inhabitants 
having already taken the oath of allegiance to the United States, 
were disarmed. The news of this untoward event soon came to 
Clark at Kaskaskia, who saw at once his peril. A British army 
lay in the path of his retreat, backed by a confederacy of Indi- 
ans who would doubtless turn against him at the first check he 
might receive-. 

While his fertile genius was on the rack for expedients where- 
with to sustain himself, a Spanish trader, named Francis Yigo, 
came to his quarters with news from Yincennes. He informed 
Clark that Hamilton, being under no apprehension of an attack, 
had sent away the largest portion of his force to blockade the 
Ohio, and cut off his retreat, and with the first opening of spring 
an attack was to be made on the Illinois villages. His resolution 
was immediately taken. Yincennes, the head-center of these 
machinations, must be ( captured. "If I don't take Hamilton, 
Hamilton will take me," said Clark. 

It was now the 29th of January, and so prompt were the 
French inhabitants of Kaskaskia to assist the Americans, that by 
the 4th of February everything was ready. The artillery and 
stores for the expedition were placed on a light draught vessel, 
under command of one of his officers named John Rogers, to 
be transported down the Mississippi, and up the Ohio and Wa- 
bash rivers, to the destined field of operation against the post. 

*Butler's Kentucky, p. 80. 



Clarke Marches Against Vincennes. 159 

The next day Clark himself, with. 175 men, a part of whom 
were French recruits, took up their march across the country for 
the same destination. On the 17th they reached the banks of 
the Wabash, but how to gain the opposite bank of the river, 
where the fort stood, was a problem more difficult of solution in 
the mind of Clark, than how to take the fort after he had crossed, 
for the late rains had flooded the broad intervals along the river, 
and far above and below a forest rose up through the swollen 
waters, mirroring its leafless branches, inverted into a picturesque 
mirage. 

The morning gun of the fort was heard as the perplexed in- 
vaders took up their tents, after a night's rest. Rafts were now 
made, and a few trusty Frenchmen dispatched across the mys- 
terious waste, to steal boats from their moorings, outside of 
the unsuspecting town. This hazardous adventure proved a 
success after three days, during which time the army of Clark 
had been toiling through the flooded intervals of the Wabash, 
along the shallowest portions, endeavoring to gain its immediate 
bank. 

On the 21st the army crossed the turbulent stream in the 
boats stolen by the scouts, and now its labors were redoubled. 
The ground in advance was now reconnoitred in a canoe, and the 
depth of the flood sounded, by Clark himself. This done, he 
blackened his face with powder, and gave the war-whoop, as if he 
had been an Indian, and marched into the water without saying 
a word. His comrades followed, under the inspiration of a war 
song, which was joined in along the whole line. Far along to 
the left a ridge rose above the waste of waters, where some open 
sheds had been built for a sugar camp. Here they spent the 
night, and the next day resumed their watery march towards the 
fort. For three days they had fasted, but on arriving at Vin- 
cennes the French stealthily brought provisions to the camp, 
and the siege began. 

The resistance was determined for awhile, but the courage and 
audacity of the beseigers knew no bounds, and after a spirited 
parley, Hamilton surrendered the fort, with its garrison, num- 
bering 79 men, on the 21th of February, 1779, and with this 
surrender the Northwest passed out of English hands into the 
immediate possession of the Americans, except the posts which 
the former still held along the lakes. * 

* Xote. — The following 1 from Law's History of Vincennes is copied as but a 
just tribute to the patriotism of Gibault and Vigo : Pierre Gibault, Parish Priest 
at Vincennes. and occasionally performing his apo-tolic duties on the Missis- 
sippi, was at Kaskaskia in 1778-9, when Gen. Clark captured that place. The 
services he rendered Clark in that campaign, which were acknowledged by a 
resolution of the Legislature of Virginia, in 1780 — his patriotism, his sacrifices, 



160 Stores Arrive at Vincennes. 

Here the British power still lingered. On the 27th the vessel 
arrived with the stores, its hero-commander mortified and incon- 
solable that he had not been, able to reach the scene of operations 
in time to ferry Clark's army across the river, and bring to his 
gallant soldiers the provisions they so much needed during their 
three days of fasting. Among the prisoners taken at Vincennes 
were some young Frenchmen, enlisted by Hamilton, at Detroit. 
These were released, on their taking an oath that they would not 
tight again against the Americans during the war, and were sent 
home, with abundant supplies to serve their wants on the way. 

his courage and love of liberty, require of me a fuller notice of this good man 
and pure patriot, than I have been enabled to give in the published address. 
Father Gibault was a Jesuit missionary to the Illinois at an early period, and 
had the curacy of the parish at Kaskaskia when Clark took possession of that 
post; and no man has paid a more sincere tribute to the services rendered by 
Father Gibault to the American cause, than Clark himself. It was a matter of 
deep importance, especially after the arrest of Rochblave, the commandant at 
Kaskaskia, for Clark to conciliate, if possible, the ancient inhabitants residing 
at Kaskaskia. This he effectually did through the agency of Father Gibault. 
1 hrough his influence, not only were the French population of Kaskaskia in- 
duced to supply the troops with provisions and other necessaries, but to receive 
the depreciated continental paper currency of Virginia at par, for all supplies 
thus furnished, Vigo adding his guarantee for its redemption, and receiving it 
dollar for dollar, not only from the soldiers, but from the inhabitants, until it 
became entirely worthless. Father Gibault, but especially Vigo, had on hand 
at the close of the campaign, more than twenty thousand dollars of this 
worthless trash (the only funds, nowever, which Clark had in his military chest.) 
and not one dollar of which was ever redeemed, either for Vigo or Father Gi- 
bault, who, for this worthless trash, disposed " of all his cattle, and the tithes of 
his parishoners, 1 ' in order to sustain Clark and his troops, without which aid 
they must have surrendered, surrounded as they were, by the Indian allies of 
the British, and deprived of all resources but those furnished by the French 
inhabitants, through the persuasion of Vigo and Father Gibault. But pore 
than this. Through the influence of these men, when Clark left Kaskaskia for 
the purpose of capturing Hamilton and his men at post Vincennes, a company 
of fifty young Frenchmen was at Kaskaskia, who joined Clark's troops, under 
the command of Captain Charlevoix, who shared in all the perils and honors of 
that glorious campaign, which ended in the capture of the Post, and the sur- 
render of Hamilton, an event more important in its consequences than any 
other occurring during our revolutionary struggle. 

It was entirely through the means of Father Gibault that Hamilton released 
Col. Vigo, when sent by Clark to ascertain the true situation of affairs at Vin- 
cennes. He was captured by the Indians and taken to " Fort Sackville,'' where 
he was kept a prisoner on parole for many weeks, and released, entirely by the 
interference of Father Gibault, and the declaration of the French inhabitants 
at Vincennes, who, with their priest at their head, after service on the Sabbath, 
maiched to the fort and informed Hamilton "they would refuse all supplies to 
the garrison unless Vigo was released." Ol that release, and the important 
effect of Vigo's information to Clark on his return to Kaskaskia, in reference 
to the capture of the post by Hamilton, I have already spoken. Next to Clark 
and Vigo, the United States are indebted more to Father Gibault for the acces- 
sion of the States, comprised in what was the original North-Western Terri- 
tory, than to any other man. 1 ' 

The records of this benevolent man are still preserved in the church at Kas- 
k askia. — [Author. 



St Joseph TaJcen by the Spanish. 161 

On their arrival at Detroit, they did good service to the Ameri- 
can cause by congratulating themselves that their oath did not 
bind them not to light for the Americans, if a chance offered. 

A large convoy of stores and provisions were on their way 
from Detroit to Yincennes when the Americans took it, which 
was intercepted on the way by a detachment under command of 
Oapt. Helm, who by the late capitulation of the place was now 
released from the bonds of a war prisoner, and again an officer 
in Clark's little army. The amount of clothing, provisions, etc., 
was more than sufficient to supply all the wants of the garrison, 
and stinted rations and rags were now substituted with plen- 
teousness and comfortable garments. On the 7th of March 
Clark sent Colonel Hamilton, with eighteen of his principal sol- 
diers, to Virginia, as war prisoners, under an escort of 25 men. 
Soon after their arrival, Hamilton was put in irons, and confined 
in a dungeon, debarred the use of pen, ink and paper, and ex- 
cluded from all communication with any one except his keeper. 
This was done to punish him for having offered premiums to the- 
Indians for white scalps. For this offense he. was ever afterwards 
called "The hair buyer."* The severity of his sentence was 
soon afterwards mitigated by order of continental court-martial. 

Early in 1779 a war broke out between England and Spain, 
which was subsequently followed by an acknowledgment of the 
Independence of the United States by that power, though with 
a bad grace, as if dragged into the reluctant admission by the 
force of circumstances. Withal, however, the hostile attitude of 
the two nations, England and Spain, was not without its influence 
in preserving the conquests achieved by Clark, inasmuch as it 
secured the alliance of the then Spanish town of St. Louis to the 
American cause, and interposed a weighty obstacle in the way of 
any attempt on the part of the English to retake the Illinois 
country or Yincennes, while St. Louis was their ally. 

Instead of this being attempted, St. Louis took the offensive 
herself as an ally of America. On the 2nd of June, 1781, Don 
Eugenie Pierre, a Spanish officer, marched from St. Louis with 
65 men against the British post of St. Joseph. The place was 
taken, and with overreaching ambition the commander went 
through the forms of taking possession of the country in the 
name of Spain, but retired shortly afterwards to St. Louis. 

By virtue of this insignificant conquest, Spain subsequently 
attempted to establish a claim to the country intervening between 
Lake Michigan and her own territory west of the Mississippi. 

Jefferson's Correspondence, Vol. I, p. 455. 



162 St. Louis Attacked. 

While these events were transpiring in the West, the armies 
of England and America were brandishing their battle-blades in 
each other's faces, with stubborn courage on both sides, and when 
fighting ceased, among other issues settled, the conquests of the 
West and its consequent destiny, were not forgotten. 

At this time the population of St. # Louis, according to Hutchins, was 800 
white and 150 colored people, and being- a Spanish town, it was legal plunder 
for the English. Accordingly, an expedition was set on foot against it from the 
British post of Michilimackinac, estimated at 1,500 men, most of whom were 
Indians. 

While Clark was waiting at Kaskaskia, says Stoddard in his sketches, 
"The commandant of Michilimackinac in 1780 assembled about 1,500 Indians 
and 140 English, and attempted the reduction of St. Louis. During the short time 
they were before that town 60 of the inhabitants were killed, and 30 ta,ken 
prisoners. Fortunately, Gen. Clark was on the opposite side of the Mississippi 
with a considerable force. On his appearance at St. Louis with a strong detach- 
ment, the Indians were amazed. They had no disposition to quarrel with any 
other than the Louisianians, and charged the British with deception. In fine, 
as the jealousy of the Indians was excited, the English trembled for their safety, 
and secretly abandoned their auxilaries and made the best of their way into 
Canada. The Indians then retired to their homes in peace. This expedition, 
as appears, was not sanctioned by the English court, and the private property 
of the commandant was seized to pay the expenses of it, most likely because it 
proved unfortunate." 

This account has been quoted by able historians, and is doubtless correct, ex- 
cept as to the assistance credited to Gen. Clark as offering to help defend the 
town. This was impossible, as he had left the country previous to that time, 
but, without doubt, the respect with which his gallant conduct had inspired the 
Indians of the immediate country around had its effect on the Indian force from 
Michilimackinac, and, besides saving St. Louis, prevented them from attacking 
the towns of Southern Illinois, which then were in a hostile attitude to British 
rule, either as French or American towns, both of which countries were at war 
with England. 

Auguste Chouteau says that Clark rendered the town no assistance. This 
settles the point as to the question, for he was one of the original settlers un- 
der Laclede's grant, and must have been an eye-witness. The shameful con- 
duct of Leyba, the Lieutenant-Governor at the time, was an excess of treachery 
seldom equalled. Previous to the attack he sent all the powder away, but for- 
tunately a trader had eight barrels of this precious specific, which the defenders 
appropriated for the occasion. Not content with this dereliction, he spiked 
some of the cannon of the defenders; but despite these obstacles, the courageous 
soldiers stood to their places, and beat back their numerous assailants with a 
courage seldom equalled. The storm of indignation which the traitor Leyba 
met after the battle, was too much for him to live under, and he sickened and 
died shortly afterwards, tradition says from poison administered by his own 
hand. This account is taken from Stoddard, Hall, Martin, and the Western 
Annals, neither of which appear to have details as full as could be desired, es- 
pecially as it is the only siege or battle that ever occurred at St. Louis. 



CHAPTEE X. 

Moravian Settlements on the Muskingum — Premonitions of 
the American Revolution — British Emissaries Among the 
Indians — Forts Mcintosh and Laurens Built — Desperate 
Attack on the Latter — The Siege Raised oy Hunger — The 
Moravians Removed — Mary Heckw elders Account — Horri- 
ble Slaughter of the Exiles — Crawford? s Expedition Against 
Sandusky — The Enemy Encountered — Crawford Taken 
Prisoner — His Awful Death oy Fire — Peace — Complex Di- 
plomacy at the Treaty of Paris — Firmness of Jay Tri- 
umphant. 

The few sparse settlements in Kentucky already made, still 
maintained their ground, although constantly menaced by Indians 
on the war-path, while the Alleghanies interposed serious bar- 
riers between them and any succor from the parent State in case 
of an attack. 

No attempt had yet been made at settlement on what might 
with propriety then have been called the Indian side of the 
Ohio, except the Moravian settlements. These had been in pro- 
gress on the Muskingum river since 1762. Christian Frederic 
Post (the same who in 1756 executed the heroic mission to Fort 
Pitt,) and his co-worker, John Heckwelder, at that time set up a 
tabernacle there for worship. The missionary spirit was the in- 
centive to their enterprise, but to facilitate their work in this di- 
rection, they purchased small parcels of land of the Indians, made 
an opening in the forest, planted fields of corn, and soon they 
were surrounded with plenty. The celebrated David Ziesburger 
joined them in a few years, and the towns of Shoenbrun, Gnad- 
enhutten and Salem, were built within an area of ten miles, near 
the present site of New Philadelphia, in Tuscarawas countv, 
Ohio. 

This could not be called a white settlement, yet it repre- 
sented Christian civilization, as developed by the teachings of the 
Moravian missionaries, whose heroic faith had been inherited 
from the martyr Huss. Since that remote period this remarka- 
ble people had been disciplined by a school of three centuries of 

(163) 



164: Fort Mcintosh Built. 

persecution, during which time their courage had become the 
admiration of the Protestant world. They had ever been in its 
van breaking up the fallen ground, ready to be tilled by more 
effeminate Christians. 

Their attempts on the Muskingum had thus far been a success, 
but unhappily for them they still held to the doctrines of non- 
resistance, with unshaken faith, that God's Providence would 
safely lead them through the dangers that surrounded them. 

However plausible or practicable such a theory might be in 
times of peace, it became a fatal illusion when the fires of revo- 
lution kindled along the Atlantic should shake the border into 
fury, as was soon to be the case. "When the centre is disturbed, 
how much more is the circumference agitated. 

The borders of Pennsylvania and Yirginia were now daily be- 
coming more exposed to dangers, as the British emissaries among 
the Indians excited them to take the war-path, and the Conti- 
nental Congress passed a resolution to send a force into the inte- 
rior, with a view of taking Detroit, the western supply depot, 
where the Indians obtained the means wherewith to keep up the 
war. 

In May, 1778, while the expedition of Clark was about starting 
on its mission, Brigadier General Lachlin Mcintosh, of the Con- 
tinental Army, w T as placed in command of the Western Depart- 
ment, with his head quarters at Ft. Pitt. The following October, 
at the head of a small force of regulars and militia, he descended 
the Ohio and built a fort thirty miles below Fort Pitt, which 
was named Fort MGlntosh. This was the first stockade ever built 
by Americans on the Northern side of the Ohio. 

For prudential reasons, probably for the want of means, the 
Continental Congress now instructed him to abandon the original 
design against Detroit, but in lieu thereof, to make an incursion 
into the interior for the purpose of overawing the Indians, "With 
this intent he took up his march at the head of 1,00*0 men, intend- 
ing to attack Sandusky, but on reaching the Muskingum he 
encamped, and concluded to defer the attack against the objec- 
tive point till the coming spring. Here he built Fort Laurens, 
so named in honor of the President of the Continental Con- 
gress. He left Colonel John Gibson in command of the post 
with 150 men, and returned with the main body to Fort Pitt. 

All these movements were reported to the English commander 
at Detroit, who, as might be expected, at once laid his plans to 
capture the audacious Americans, who had dared to make a 
stand in the heart of the country. 

It will be remembered that Francis Vigo, the Spanish trader 
of St. Louis, who arrived at Kaskaskia in January, brought 
information to Clark that Hamilton had weakened his forces by 



Siege of Fort Laurens. 165 

sending away large detachments against the frontiers, and that 
Clark, taking advantage of this incautious movement, had marched 
against Yincennes and taken it. It may therefore be inferred that 
Fort Laurens was the decoy duck which gave Yincennes to the 
Americans. 

Late in January, 1779, the threatened attack was made on the 
fort, and kept up till March with desperate resolution. The 
garrison successfully resisted every assault of their besiegers, 
though they environed the post by means of their numbers, and 
gave them no respite either by night or day. 

Starvation soon began to threaten them, but, happily for the 
besieged, the besiegers were in a similar predicament, and the 
sanguinary contest now became a rivalship, not of courage and 
muscle only, but a trial of endurance under the pangs of hunger. 
While the enemy were thus beset with perplexity, how to obtain 
provisions till they could press the siege to a successful issue by 
starving out the garrison, while they themselves were gaunt with 
hunger, they proposed to Gibson, the commander, to raise the 
siege if he would give them a barrel of flour. The offer was 
promptly accepted, as a device to conceal the desperate straits to 
which the garrison was reduced. The flour was sent outside the 
palisade, and some meat with it, which the hungry Indians and 
their companions devoured like a pack of wolves, and vanished 
in the forest, taking their course for Detroit. 

The last savage yelp soon died away with the retreating foe, 
and silence took the place of the bedlam of war-whoops that had 
echoed about the place for two months. A runner skilled in 
woodcraft was now selected to hasten to Fort Mcintosh with all 
possible dispatch, and obtain supplies. With the shyness of a 
fox venturing from his lair, the bold ranger left the fort and 
safely reached his destination, a distance of fifty miles, through 
an unbroken wilderness, when a band of scouts were immedi- 
ately sent with provisions for the relief of the hungry garrison, 
in their frontier hermitage. Here they remained till the fol- 
lowing August, when the fort was evacuated. 

Fort Mcintosh was evacuated soon afterwards, which left no 
representation of American interests between Yincennes and 
Fort Pitt. With the exception of a part of the Delawares, all 
the Indians of the country now became active allies of the Eng- 
lish. The Moravians, or praying Indians, as they were some- 
times called, were, in accordance with their faith, neutral. 

Their villages laid in the war-path of their savage brothers, 
and when a hostile war party were returning from a successful 
incursion into the white settlements, dragging their wretched 
captives into their distant lodges in the wilderness,, they often 
quartered on these apostate savages, who durst not refuse them 



166 The Moravian Converts. 

shelter. On these occasions the griefs of the captives were al- 
Avays mitigated as far as possible by acts of kindness from their 
hosts, if such a name may be applied to the dispenser of an en- 
forced hospitality. 

Colonel Depuyster then commanded in Detroit as the 
successor of Hamilton, and seeing the danger of these people, he 
mercifully interposed between them and the subtile hostility by 
which they were victimized by their neutrality from both sides, 
and ordered their removal to the neighborhood of Sandusky. 
This decree was enforced upon the unwilling Moravians by two 
hundred Wyandottes under the command of British officers. 
Their crops were left standing in the field, ready for the harvest, 
when they were forced away from their homes, to find new shel- 
ter and a precarious subsistence for the coming winter among 
their unfriendly brethren, who were only restrained from open 
hostility against them by the British officers. 

Among the evil geniuses of the forest at that time, was Simon 
Girty, a native of Western Pennsylvania. When a boy he had been 
taken captive by the Indians, and adopted into the Seneca tribe. 
Among them he had won distinction as a forest ranger, and 
would gladly have spent his life with them, but when Bouquet 
made his successful expedition to the Muskingum, Girty, with 
other captives, was returned to civilization. The next year he 
rose to the rank of a commissioned officer in the Pennsylvania 
militia, but two years later deserted to the British, and joined the 
hostile Indians of the forest with Elliot,* a tory of equal notorie- 
ty. Both of these became prominent leaders among the savages, 
Girty rivaling them in ferocity. His spite against the Moravian 
converts was unmeasured. While these unhappy exiles were be- 
ing conducted from their homes on the Muskingum to Sandusky, 
some care had been taken to mitigate their woes, which so en- 
raged Girty that it was with difficulty he could be restrained 
from assaulting them with a tomahawk after their arrival.-)- 

*Commodore Elliot of the U. S. Navy was his nephew. 

fThe following- account of the affair is copied from the American Pioneer, 
Yol. II, pp. 224 and 225, as a contribution to that valuable work by Mary Heck- 
welder, daughter of the celebrated Moravian missionary and historian. She 
was the first white child born in Ohio. 

"Bethlehem, Pa., February 2ith f 1843. 
"J. S. Williams, Esq. 

"Dear Sir: — Yours of the 31st ult., to Mr. Kummen, post master at this 
place, has been handed to me. I have not been in the habit of making much 
use of my pen for a number of years; I will, however, at your request, endeavor 
to give you a short account of the first four years of my life, which were all I 
spent among the Indians, having since lived in Bethlehem nearly all the time. 
My acquaintance or knowledge of them and their history, is chiefly from books, 
and what 1 heard from my father and other missionaries 

" I was born April 16th, 1781, in Salem, one of the Moravian Indian towns, 
on the Muskingum river, State of Ohio. Soon after my birth, times becoming 



The Victims Entrapped. 167 

Here they remained till February, when permission was given 
to a part' of them to return to their homes on the Muskingum, to 
harvest their corn, which was still standing. 

While engaged in this labor on the 6th of March, a company 
of borderers came to them in an apparently friendly spirit, and 
proposed to them to remove to Pittsburg for safety, and with oily 
words enticed them to give up their arms and go into two houses 
to remain for the night. This done, Williamson, the leader of 
the baud, took counsel with his comrades as to the fate of the en- 
trapped victims. 

All in favor of sparing their lives were ordered to step forward. 

very troublesome, the settlements were often in danger from war parties, and 
from an encampment of warriors near Gnaclenhutten; and finally, in the begin- 
ning of September of the same year, we were all made prisoners. First, four 
of the missionaries were seized by a party of Huron warriors, and declared 
prisoners of war; they were then led into the camp of the Delawares, where 
the death-song was sung over them. Soon after they had secured them, a num- 
ber of warriors marched off for Salem and Shoenbrun. About thirty savages 
arrived at the former place in the dusk of the evening, and broke open the mis- 
sion house. Here they took my mother and myself prisoners, and having led 
her into the street and placed guards over her, they plundered the house of every- 
thing they could take with them and destroyed what was left. Then going to 
take my mother along with them, the savages were prevailed upon, through 
the intercession of the Indian females, to let her remain at Salem till the next 
morning — the night being dark and rainy and almost impossible for her to travel 
so far — they at last consented on condition that she should be brought into the 
camp the next morning, which was accordingly done, and she was safely con- 
ducted by our Indians to Gnaclenhutten. 

44 After experiencing the cruel treatment of the savages for sometime, they 
were set at liberty again ; but were obliged to leave their flourishing settlements, 
and forced to march through a dreary wilderness to Upper Sandusky. We 
went by land through Goshachguenk to the Walholding, and then partly by 
water and partly along the banks of the river, to Sandusky creek. All the way 
I was carried by an Indian woman, carefully wrapped in a blanket, on her back. 
Our journey was exceedingly tedious and dangerous; some of the canoes sunk, 
and those that were in them lost all their provisions and everything they had 
saved. Those that went by land drove the cattle, a pretty large herd. The 
savages now drove us along, the missionaries with their families usually in the 
midst, surrounded by their Indian converts. The roads were exceedingly bad, 
leading through a continuation of swamps. 

44 Having arrived at Upper Sandusky, they built small huts of logs and bark 
to screen them from the cold, having neither beds nor blankets, and being 
reduced to the greatest poverty and want; for the savages had by degrees stolen 
everything both from missionaries and Indians, on the journey. We lived here 
extremely poor, oftentimes very little or nothing to satisfy the cravings of hun- 
ger; and the poorest of the Indians were obliged to live upon their dead cattle, 
which died for want of pasture. 

44 After living in this dreary wilderness, in danger, poverty, and distress of all 

sorts, a written order arrived in March, 1782, sent by the governor to the half 

king of the Hurons and to an English officer in his company, to bring all the 

missionaries and their families to Detroit, but with a strict order not to plunder 

nor abuse them in the least." 

****** 

" Respectfully yours, 

"Mary Heckewelder." 



168 Massacre of The Morrvians. 

Of the 90 men who composed the party, only 18 stepped for- 
ward, leaving 72 in favor of killing them. 

This decision was immediately made known to the unhappy 
victims, when the unexpected decree was replied to with earnest 
entreaties that their lives might be spared, but lamentations and 
supplications were unavailing to the iron-hearted scouts. They 
however, postponed the execution of the sentence till morning, to 
give them time to prepare for death in their accustomed spirit of 
devotion. The night was spent by the victims in prayer and 
singing, while their executioners stood guard outside to prevent 
escape. In the morning all was ready on both sides. The Mora- 
vians were tranquil, and their executioners unrelenting, and the 
work began. 

Through apertures in the walls of the building the muzzles 
of the guns were pointed, and the shooting was continued till 
the last faint groans of the victims had died away in silence, and 
all were prostrated, as was supposed, into a pile of lifeless corpses. 
But beneath the ponderous weight of dead bodies a youth of six- 
teen managed to find his way through an aperture in the floor, 
and escaped thence into the woods. Another boy also escaped 
after being scalped, and both lived to tell the tale of woe which 
had whelmed 94 of their countrymen in death. 

To the credit of our government be it said, that Williamson's 
band were not in the continental service, and that their bloody 
work was execrated throughout the country. 

Border life, in those days, furnishes inexhaustible material for 
romancers and poets, as well as historians, for extremes in the 
bent of the human mind were brought into contact there, untram- 
meled by the restraints of law, or even of society, and if exam- 
ples of man's noblest nature were nurtured into being by the 
severe discipline of frontier privations, it is not strange that cor- 
responding extremes of evil purposes should also be brought to 
the surface by the extremities resorted to to accomplish required 
results. 

The war was contested with a stubborn courage on the part of 
the English, more for what the country was destined to be than 
for what it then was, and no means were left untried to secure the 
inheritance of nature which opened before their prophetic vision 
to the West. This disposition was contagious, and the roughest 
side of border life gathered force like a tornado when the inno- 
cent Moravians were murdered. 

Here were unmeasured forests bespangled by a thousand 
streams, and further beyond them oceans of wild prairie, all wait- 
ing the magic touch of civilization to re-produce the wonders of 
Europe on an improved plan. To accomplish this, was worthy 
the ambition of the English, who with characteristic confidence 



Expeditions to Take Sandusky. 169 

in themselves thought they could do it better than their rebel- 
lious children. The ultimate fate of the Indians was not consid- 
ered. That would take care of itself. Meantime, if their irre- 
pressible dash, or even their ferocity could be extemporized into 
use in order to bring about the desired result, the end justified 
the means in their estimation, though it brought desolation and 
cruel death to the borders of American settlements. 

During the revolution the borderers had been wrought up to 
such a pitch of excitement, that long after the army of Cornwal- 
lis had surrendered, and fighting had ceased between the Ameri- 
can and British armies, the war was continued with unremitting 
severity on the frontiers. 

Throughout the Western portions of Pennsylvania and Vir- 
ginia, every man, and even every boy, could handle a rifle with a 
dexterity seldom equaled by the trained soldiers of regular armies. 
Most of the British having been driven from the field after the 
surrender of Cornwallis, the success of the revolution was no 
longer doubted, and the fertile fields across the Ohio, as future 
homes, now began to attract attention. 

Under such auspices an expedition was planned in May, 1782, 
to march against Sandusky, take the place and seize upon the 
country. The enterprise was a private one, though it was ap- 
proved by General Irvine, who then held command of Fort Pitt. 
Each soldier furnished his own horse and equipments at his own 
expense, with no expectations of any other pay than what might 
result from the success of the adventure. The party numbered 
480, among whom were most of the men who had partaken in 
the massacre of the Moravians a few weeks before. 

They elected their officers by ballot, and their choice fell upon 
"William Crawford, a man who had been a companion of the 
youthful Washington, when he was only a backwoods surveyor, 
unmindful of his future destiny. 

Col. David Williamson was second in command, the same who 
had led the murderous expedition against the Moravians, from 
which it would appear that the consciences of the raiders was not 
sensitive as to the means to be used wdiereby the Indians should 
be conquered into submission. 

Everything being in readiness, on the 25th of May the com- 
pany dashed into the wilderness, each man well mounted and 
laden with twenty days' provisions. On the fourth day they 
reached Gnadenhutten, the scene of the late Moravian massacre. 
Here the bodies of the victims, men, women and children, laid 
without burial, in a horrible pile of decay, mingled with the ashes 
of the building which was burnt over their lifeless remains. The 
fields of corn were standing, with no one left to harvest them, 
and afforded ample provender for their horses. 



170 t The Retreat. 

Passing on in a westerly course, they soon came to the San- 
dusky plains, where Wyandotte Co. now is. Here they expected 
to find the Wyandottes in force, but in this they were mistaken. 
A voiceless solitude of prairie hazel brush and oak openings ex- 
tended far and wide.* Not an Indian or Britisher was seen, but 
slyly as the Thugs of India, the stealthy foe had dogged their 
trail, crawling around their camp at night, and fleet-footed mes- 
sengers had reported their numbers, and the course they were 
taking ever since they had crossed the Muskingum. 

Near the present site of Upper Sandusky the enemy was en- 
countered, among whom was the notorious Simon Girty and El- 
liot. Crawford immediately took a sheltered position in a grove, 
and succeeded in maintaining the supremacy during the action. 
The next day the fight was renewed, but Crawford still kept the 
savages at a respectful distance by means of his sharp-shooters. 
The third day the Indians were reinforced by a company of Brit- 
ish cavalry from Detroit. All hope of final victory was now 
abandoned, and the retreat was commenced at nine o'clock the 
succeeding evening. By skillful skirmishing the Americans suc- 
ceeded in getting outside the enemy's lines, and making a brief 
halt, to their dismay their commander was missing. 

But there was no time to look for him, for the victorious 
enemy were pressing upon their rear in overwhelming numbers, 
and now while the defeated raiders are flying homeward with the 
exultant foe in hot pursuit, the fate of Crawford will be told. 

During the bewilderment of the night retreat Crawford had 
been cut off from the main body and captured, together with 
several others, among whom was Dr. Knight. Most of the cap- 
tives were tomahawked with little ceremony, but Crawford, the 
big Captain, as the Indians called him in derision, was reserved 
for an especial object on whom to satiate their vengeance. When 
brought to the place of execution, among the red demons who 
were assembled to take part in the revelry, was Simon Girty. 

Nine years before, during his residence near Pittsburg, he had 
lived in the same neighborhood with Crawford, and the unhappy 
victim seeing him, a faint ray of hope flashed into his frozen 
heart as he was stripped naked and tied to the fatal stake. 

There were the faggots, and vengeful hands to apply them, 
and there was Girty, his former neighbor, who had often sat at 
his table in the free and easy companionship peculiar to frontier 
men and hunters, but the face of the white savage was cold and 
forbidding. u Do they intend to burn me ?" inquired Crawford 
of Girty. "Yes," was the reply. " I will take it all patiently," 
said the stoical Colonel, and the work began. 

*This was the condition of Wyandotte county as late as 1839, at which time 
the writer passed through it soon after the removal of the Indians. 






Crawford Dies ly Fire. 171 

His tormenters, with a keen discrimination, economized the 
vital spark in their victim to the longest span, in order to make 
the most of him. For three hours he continued to breathe, while 
the whole surface of his body had been punctured with the burn- 
ing ends of hickory sticks. 

At last the voice of prayer was heard in low but audible words. 
A hideous squaw now, in the vain attempt to bring fresh tor- 
tures to the dying man, emptied a shovel of coals on his back as 
he laid prostrate, face downwards, but insensibility had come to 
his relief, and he manifested no sign of pain. Soon afterwards 
he arose to his feet, and walked around the post to which he had 
been tied, and again laid down for the last time. Dr. Knight 
was now taken away, and nothing more was known of his last 
moments, except what was gathered from those who took part in 
the fiendish work. 

Dr. Knight was treated only as a prisoner of war, and ulti- 
mately was returned to his home. 

According to Heckwelder, the Moravian historian of those 
times, Crawford was tortured in revenge for the barbarous work 
of Williamson's men a few weeks before, on which occasion for- 
ty-two women and children had shared the fate of the men in the 
indiscriminate butchery. 

Perkins, author of the Western Annals, says that Crawford's 
command started into the forests with the avowed purpose of 
killing every red man, woman or child, who came within the 
reach of their rifles. As much may be inferred from some of the 
co temporary relations. But C. W. Butterfield, who has lately 
published a complete history of the whole expedition, taken from 
documents, manuscripts and tradition, has discredited the detainers 
of the expeditionists, and exonerates Crawford, at least, from any 
complicity in the slaughter of Gnadenhutten. Here it is proper 
to say, however, that the horrors of Gnadenhutten served to 
soften the hearts of the hostile Indians towards the Christian In- 
dians, and even the impervious Girty was no longer their enemy. 
These conditions would go to strengthen the theory, that Craw- 
ford's awful fate was the result of the Moravian massacrr, al- 
though he was innocent of any murderous design against the Indi- 
ans, as Mr. Butterfield, his charitable biographer, has indicated. 

" My country, right or wrong," is the best apology the histori- 
an can make for the style of warfare which had been waged 
against the Indians ever since 1771:, when Cornstock and Logan 
raised the tomahawk in revenge for the unprovoked slaughters of 
Cresap, Greathouse, and others. And thus it was, that the fron- 
tiers of the colonies had been lashed into fury by the war, and 
could only be lulled into quiet by a permanent peace with Eng- 
land. 



172 Peace Negotiations. 

After fighting had ceased, and negotiations were opened for 
peace, the first point to be settled was, on what terms the Amer- 
icans should treat, which, in fact, involved the chief point at 
issue. Nobodj^ saw this in a clearer light than the American 
Commissioners themselves. Jay, Adams, Franklin and Laurens, 
with a tenacity worthy their high calling, refused to treat in any 
capacity, except as a sovereign and independent nation. This 
was reluctantly conceded by England, and three other points only 
remained to be settled: The American rights to the fisheries of 
Newfoundland; their liability to indemnify tories for losses 
during the war; and the last and most important of the three, the 
Western limits of the United States. 

The fishery question was disposed of by granting the Ameri- 
cans the right to fish where they pleased. Next, as to indemni- 
fying tories for the loss of their property, either by the ravages 
of war, or the confiscation of their estates, the American Com- 
missioners suggested that it would be equally reasonable for the 
English to make good the private damage their armies did to 
American patriots during their various invasions. This unan- 
swerable argument settled that point in favor of the Americans. 

Lastly came the boundary question, which was a far more cir- 
cumstantial affair, and presents one of the most complex condi- 
tions of diplomacy ever recorded in history. 

Spain was then a powerful nation, and was allied to France by 
the closest relations of mutual interest, as each were under the 
rule of a Bourbon. The English were determined to retain all 
the territory described in the Quebec bill of 1774, which made 
the Ohio river the Southern line of Canada. 

Meantime the Count de Aranda, the Spanish Minister, asserted 
the claim of Spain to all the territory between the Mississippi 
and Alleghany Mountains. 

At this juncture Mr. Jay, with his usual penetration, made the 
discovery that France was secretly using her influence in favor of 
the Spanish claim. The case was now daily becoming more com- 
plicated, and the American Commissioners, after some weeks of 
delay, availed themselves of England's willingness to concede the 
boundary of the Mississippi, and signed the definitive treaty 
with her to this effect, without consulting either the French or 
Spanish Ministers. Had the signing of the treaty hung on the 
pleasure of Spain till her consent was obtained to making the 
Mississippi the Western boundary of the United States, it would 
never have been signed, and it is highly probable that England 
would not have conceded this point, if the Spanish claim had not 
presented obstacles in the way of her retaining the territory in 
question, even if the Americans relinquished it. This considera- 
tion, in addition to the American rights bv virtue of Clark's con- 



Contingent Diplomacy. 173 

quest, settled the destiny of the Northwest, by placing it under 
the new flag of the United States. It will thus be seen that this 
result grew out of a rare combination of contingent conditions, 
the miscarriage of any one of which would have defeated its ac- 
complishment. 

John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Henry Laurens were the 
Commissioners on the part of the United States to negotiate the peace — all able 
men, perhaps the best fitted for the work of any the country afforded. Mr. Jay, 
in particular, distinguished himself by his penetration into the mazes of Euro- 
pean diplomacy, and proved himself more than a match for the Commissioners 
of England, Spain and France, though they had grown grey (to use a metaphor) 
in such service, while he had no other qualifications but his master-mind, and 
his unshaken purpose. The King of England empowered Richard Oswald to 
act with the Commissioners on the part of " The Colonies or Plantations, or any 
body or bodies, corporate or politic, assembly or assemblies, or description of men, 
or person or persons whatsoever," and to " negotiate a peace or truce with the said 
Colonies or Plantations, or any of them, or any part or parts thereof." Count 
Vergennes, the French Commissioner, advised that these powers and forms were 
sufficient to meet the exigency, and Franklin, in his loyalty to French honor, at 
first coincided with him. But Jay positively refused to negotiate on any basis 
that did not establish the equality of the Commissioners of both countries as a 
starting point. "That the treaty must be the consequence of independence, 
and not independence the consequence of treaty." Franklin and his other con- 
stituents soon saw the importance of this position, and they all united with him 
in the tenacity with which he insisted on it. Whereupon -Mr. Oswald, not with- 
out some embarrassment, reluctantly exhibited his secret instructions, author- 
izing him in case " The American Commissioners are not at liberty to treat in 
any terms short oi independence, you are to declare to them that you have 
authority to make that concession." The Commissioners then proceeded to 
business, which had not progressed far till Mr. Jay learned with surprise and 
indignation, that Count de Aranda, the Spanish Commissioner, demanded the 
abandonment of the Mississippi on the part of the United States as a Western 
boundary. Nor was this policy confined to the Spanish' Court, as there was con- 
vincing evidence to Mr. Jay that France secretly encouraged Spain in this de- 
mand. Franklin at first would not believe it, but Adams, after canvassing the 
matter, coincided with Jay, and Franklin and Laurens were soon forced into the 
same conviction by the accumulating evidence in its favor. Under these cir- 
cumstances, the American Commissioners signed the treaty of peace with the 
English, without the knowledge of the French Court, as soon as the required 
terms were agreed to. This gave rise to some censure on the part of France 
and Spain, but no serious rupture from any quarter, for the following reasons: 
England saw the impossibility of retaining the Valley of the Mississippi herself, 
when both Spain and France opposed it. France had then just begun to feel 
the premonitory symptoms of the fearful revolution, which soon followed, and 
Spain had neither friendship nor honor in the issue sufficient to make a serious 
protest after the treaty was signed by the two principal parties. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Characteristics and Costume of the Virginia Border Men and 
the New England Pioneers — The Ohio Company Formed — 
Marietta Settled — Cession of the Northwest to the United 
States — Symes* Purchase — Columbia^ North Bend and Cin- 
cinnati Settled — Emigration in Arks — The British on the 
Lakes — Their Relations with the Indians — St. Clair Arrives 
at Marietta as Governor of the Northwest Territory — Courts 
Established — Harmer Invades the Indian Country — The 
French and Indian Villages on the Wabash Destroyed. 

Hitherto the Virginia ranger, among whom were a few back- 
woods Penn sylvan ians, were the only Anglo-Americans who had 
crossed the Ohio river. 

These men had been trained amidst the toils and excitements 
of camp-life from infancy. The crack of the rifle was a famil- 
iar sound to them, and the Indian war-whoop not an unfrequent 
one. 

Their character was moulded from two extremes. The first 
and fundamental one was the high-bred civilization of their 
fathers, and the other, was the influence which their collision 
with the savages had exerted over them. This had stimulated 
their heroic virtues, and also whetted their revenge to a wiry 
edge. 

Into the wilderness they had marched — their feet clad with 
moccasins, after the Indian pattern — their hunting-shirts faced 
with a fringe, and sometimes ornamented with wild-cats' paws 
for epaulettes. The inevitable leathern belt which they wore was 
as heavy as a horse's surcingle of modern days, and from it de- 
pended sockets for a tomahawk, a large knife, and a pistol. A 
heavy rifle, bullet-pouch and powder horn, completed their outfit. 

Such were the men, whose vaulting ambition in making the 
conquest of the country beyond the Ohio, had wrenched away the 
jewel which the heroic Wolfe in his dying moments, on the 
heights of Abraham, had bequeathed to the English crown. 

Another element now comes to the scene. The NewEnglander 
has heard of these fertile valleys, and comes to see them. He is 

(174) 



Settlement of Marietta. 175 

dressed in a blue-black broadclotb coat, with a velvet collar stif- 
fened with buckram, and projecting its inflexible form above the 
nape of his neck, often coming in collision with the rim of his bell- 
crowned hat as he throws his head back with an air of conscious 
dignity, neither constrained nor ostentatious. His vest reaches 
the entire length of his body, but is cut back, leaving angular 
flaps at the extremities. His feet are shod with ponderous boots, 
imparting steadfastness rather than elasticity to his gait. 

By these men were formed in June, 1786, a corporation called 
The Ohio Company. It was composed of officers and soldiers 
from New England, who had served with honor in the war of the 
Revolution. On the 23d of November, 1787, the stockholders in 
this Company met at Bracket's Tavern, in Boston, and voted to 
send a corps of forty-eight men to the mouth of the Muskingum 
river, make a survey of public lands for a settlement, cut away 
the forests for a field, and make other preparations for the colony. 

The wood choppers were to receive $4.00, and the surveyors 
$27.00 per month while in actual service, and General Rufus Put- 
nam, the venerable Superintendent, was to receive $10.00 per 
month.* 

The party landed in flat-boats at the mouth of the Muskingum, 
the 7th of April, 1788, and began to lay out a town which they 
first named Adelphi, but subsequently changed the name to 
Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette, the fair Queen of France, 
whose supreme influence in the French Court had been used in 
behalf of Franklin's mission there in 1778, to secure the acknowl- 
edgment of American independence. 

The New England element was here planted for the first time 
beyond the Ohio, and here it ever retained its foothold. But ere 
its destined influence was to make itself widely known and felt, 
the third and last conquest of the country was to be made. 

The first conquest had been made from the French, in the 
French and Indian war, which gave the country to the English. 
The second by the Virginians under Clark, which had given the 
country to the United States. But in both of these conquests the 
natives of the soil saw no infringements of their rights, nor 
were there any in theory. They had been invited to take part 
in both of them, and had done so under an impression that the 
nation to whom they had allied themselves, would protect them 
in their natural rights to the soil. But as ill-fortune would 
have it, for them, they had fought on the losing side, first for the 
French against the English, and next, chiefly against the Ameri- 
cans during the Revolutionary War, and had drawn upon them- 
selves the resentment of the Virginians and Pennsylvanians, 

*Hildreth's Pioneer Hist. p. 202. 



176 Cession of The North West to the United States. 

and the Kentucky pioneers, who were now beginning to settle 
that infant state. At no distant day a collision was inevitable 
between them and the Anglo Americans, which was not to be 
confined to the border, but to be carried into the forest recesses, 
where the ownership of the soil was to be decided by the rifle, 
tomahawk and scalping knife, in a series of campaigns, on a 
far grander scale than any which had yet been witnessed in the 
American forest. 

In 1784, on the 1st of March, the state of Yirginia had ceded 
all her rights in the Northwest to the United States. 

The deed of cession contained the following conditions, viz: 
" That the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into 
States, containing a suitable extent of territory, not less than one 
hundred, nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square; or 
as near thereto as circumstances will admit; and that the States 
so formed shall be distinct Republican States, and admitted mem- 
bers of the Federal Union ; having the same rights of sovereignty, 
freedom, and independence as the other States. That the neces- 
sary and reasonable expenses incurred by Virginia, in subduing 
any British posts, or in maintaining forts and garrisons within, 
and for the defense, or in acquiring any part of, the territory so 
ceded or relinquished, shall be fully reimbursed by the United 
States. That the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other 
settlers of the Kaskaskias, Post Vincennes, and the neighboring 
villages, who have professed themselves citizens of Yirginia, shall 
have their possessions and titles confirmed to them, and be pro- 
tected in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties. That a 
quantity not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres of 
land, promised by Yirginia, shall be allowed and granted to the 
then Colonel, now General George Rogers Clark, and to the offi- 
cers and soldiers of his regiment, who marched with him when 
the posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes were reduced, and to the 
officers and soldiers that have been since incorporated into the 
said regiment, to be laid off in one tract, the length of which not 
to exceed double the breadth, in such place on the northwest side 
of the Ohio, as a majority of the officers shall choose.^" 

The 20th day of May, 1785, Congress passed an ordinance for 
the survey and disposition of that portion of the territory which 
had been purchased by treaty from the Indian inhabitants. For 
carrying this ordinance into effect one surveyor was appointed 
from each of the States, and placed under the direction of Thomas 
Hutchins, the geographer of the United States. The territory 
was to be surveyed into townships of six miles square, by lines 

* This reservation was laid off on the borders of the Ohio river, adjacent to 
the falls; and the tract was called the " Illinois Grant," or " Clark's Grant." 



Public Surveys. 177 

running due north and south, and others crossing these at right 
angles. " The first line running north and south as aforesaid, 
shall begin on the river Ohio, at a point that shall be found to be 
north from the western termination of a line which has been run 
as the southern boundary of the State of Pennsylvania, and the 
first line running east and west shall begin at the same point and 
shall extend throughout the whole territory." The townships 
were to be numbered from south to north, beginning with No. 1, 
and the ranges to be distinguished by their progressive numbers 
to the westward ; the first range extending from the Ohio to Lake 
Erie, being marked No. 1. The geographer was to attend per- 
sonally to running the first east and west line, and to take the 
latitude of the extremes of the first north and south line, and of 
the mouths of the principal rivers. Seven ranges of townships, 
in the direction from south to north, were ordered to be first sur- 
veyed, and plats thereof transmitted to the board of treasury, and 
so of every succeeding seven ranges that should be surveyed. 

After these lands had been advertised for sale, they were to be 
sold at a rate of not less than one dollar per acre, with an addi- 
tion of the expenses of survey, estimated at thirty-six dollars a 
township. Four lots, numbered 8, 11, 26 and 29, were reserved 
for the United States, out of every township. These lots were 
mile squares of six hundred and forty acres. Lot ]S T o. 16 was 
reserved for the benefit of schools within the township. 

The States of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, by 
virtue of ancient royal charters, respectively claimed large terri- 
tories lying north of the river Ohio and west and northwest of 
the western boundary of Pennsylvania. The claim of New York 
was, however transferred to the United States, by a deed of ces- 
sion, executed in Congress on the first day of March, 1781. The 
claim of the State of Massachusetts was assigned to the LTnited 
States on the 19th day of April, 1785; and on the 13th day of 
September, 1786, the State of Connecticut transferred to the 
United States her claim to lands in the West, reserving a tract of 
about three millions of acres, bounded on the north by lake Erie, 
on the south by the forty-first degree of north latitude, and ex- 
tending westwardly one hundred and twenty miles from the 
western boundary of Pennsylvania. This tract was called the 
Western Keserve of Connecticut. In the month of October, 
1786, the legislature of that State ordered a part of the tract, 
lying east of the river Cuyahoga, to be surveyed, and opened an 
office for the sale of the lands. In 1792, a tract containing about 
five hundred thousand acres of land, lying in the western part of 
the reservation, was granted by Connecticut to certain citizens of 
that State as a compensation for property burned and destroyed 
in the towns of New London, New Haven, Fairfield, and Nor- 



178 JSt. Clair Appointed Governor. 

walk by the British troops in the course of the Revolutionary 
war. The tract thus granted was called the Fire Lands. On the 
30th of May, 1800, the jurisdictional claims of the State of Con- 
necticut to all the territory called the Western Reserve of Con- 
necticut was surrendered to the United States. These various 
cessions included all the claims held by old collonial charters to 
any western lands, all of which being transferred to the United 
States, it only remained to extinguish the Indian title, in order, 
to possess the country. 

On the 5th of October, 1787, Major-Gen. Arthur St. Clair was 
appointed Governor of the Northwest Territory, who was in- 
structed to do this as rapidly as consistent with the peace. • 

The new Territorial Government was to go into operation on 
the first of the succeeding February, 1788. Emigration was rap- 
idly coming into the country, in flat-boats down the Ohio river, 
and settling on lands already surveyed at Marietta, and ^further 
down on lands known by the name of Symes' Purchase. 

Soon after the settlement had been made at Marietta, Major 
Benjamin Sites, with about twenty men, landed in November, 
1788, at the mouth of the Little Miami river, within the limits 
of a tract of ten thousand acres, purchased by Major Sites from 
Judge Symes. Here they constructed a log fort, and laid out 
the town of Columbia. 

The next month, on the 24th, Mathias Denman and Robert 
Patterson, with twelve or fifteen men, landed at the mouth of 
the Licking river, just below, and projected the town of Cincin- 
nati. Losanteville was the first name given to the place, which 
had been manufactured (says Judge Burnet in his notes, page 47) 
" by a pedantic foreigner, whose name fortunately has been for- 
gotten." 

It was formed, he said, from the words Le-os-ante-ville, which 
he rendered " The Tillage opposite the Mouth." The name was 
not long retained, but by whose authority it was changed, is not 
known. Late in the ensuing autumn, which was in 1789, the 
town was surveyed by Colonel Ludlow. In February of the same 
year a third town was commenced on the same tract of land, at 
North Bend, just below Cincinnati. This was done by Judge 
Symes himself, the original purchaser of the tract. A few 
months later, a town was laid out and named Symes, but the 
place soon became known only by North Bend, and was destined 
to gain more notoriety as the residence of William Henry Harri- 
son, than by its success as a city. As might be supposed, a feel- 
ing of rivalry existed between the three towns started, each of 
which put forth its best efforts to attract the emigration that was 
rapidly coming into the country, and for a time neither seemed 



Fort Washington Built. 179 

to eclipse the others in any substantial advantages over the other 
two. 

At this juncture a celebrated charmer came to Cincinnati, and 
her influence turned the scales in its favor. The story runs as 
follows: 

Major Doughty, a man no more invulnerable to the tender 
passion than other majors, was ordered by General Harmar to go 
down the Ohio, and erect a fort for the protection of the rapidly 
increasing population of the three villages. With this intent, he 
landed at the Bend, and soon formed the acquaintance of a fas- 
cinating woman, who was the wife of one of the settlers at the 
place. To avoid his clandestine attentions to his wife, the hus- 
band changed his residence to Cincinnati: but this only served 
to convince the Major that Cincinnati instead of Xorth Bend was 
the most propitious place for the fort, and he promptly went 
thither and built a block-house, despite the remonstrances of 
Symes himself.* 

The settlers at the Bend soon deserted the place in favor of 
Cincinnati, partly to put themselves under the protection of the 
the block-house, in case of an Indian outbreak, and partly 
through a conviction that it gave better promise of future pro- 
gress. 

Fort Washington, a more substantial work of defense, was soon 
afterwards built at the place. 

During the early years of Western settlement, the Ohio river 
was the only highway by which the country was reached. Flat- 
boats, known by the special name of arks, with all the appurte- 
nances of cooking and sleeping, were built on the upper tributa- 
ries of the Ohio river, and from ten to twenty families would em- 
bark in a single one for the AVest. Down the Ohio they floated, 
whither fortune and the current would carry them, landing at 
last in some propitious cove in the river that looked inviting. 
Here the ark is moored, and in it they still make their home, 
till log cabins can be erected on shore. This done, the tempora- 
ry community breaks up, each family setting up for themselves, 
and the new settlement is begun. 

Xew Design, four miles south of Bellefontaine, in Monroe 
county, Illinois, was settled in this way by some Virginians in 
1781. From the germ planted here, grew to maturity, by con- 
stant accessions from Virginia, and later from Kentucky, the set- 
tlements of Southern Illinois, with their habits and sentiments 
firmly ingrained into their minds, which they inherited from 
Virginia. 

While the borders of the Ohio river were first being settled, 

* Burnet's ZSotes, pp. 53-54. 



180 St. Clair Arrives at Marietta. 

the posts of Detroit, Michilimackinac, Green Bay, St. Joseph, 
Sandusky, Niagara and Oswego, were scarcely thought of by the 
Americans. The British still held garrisons in them, all the 
same as they had done during the American Revolution. 

On the 12th of July, in 1783, soon after the definitive treaty 
of peace had been signed at Paris, Gen. "Washington sent Baron 
Steuben to Canada to confer with the Governor, for the purpose 
of transferring these posts to the United States, but to his sur- 
prise, he refused to deliver them up to the Americans, and the 
English continued to hold these posts for the present, although 
the act was in violation of the treaty of Paris. 

From their ramparts waved the red cross of St. George, and 
even in these savage realms the loyalty to the English Govern- 
ment perhaps exceeded that of the Islanders themselves. 

As might be supposed, the English had little confidence in the 
permanency of American institutions, and looked forward to a 
time when the attempt of the Americans to set up a government 
on the plan of universal suffrage would result in a failure. Un- 
der this expectation the prudential British, with an eye to the 
beautiful as well as their pecuniary interests, lingered on the 
great waters of the interior, waiting to see what the future might 
bring forward; and from these various forts they annually dis- 
tributed large amounts of goods as presents to the Indians, per- 
haps on the same principle that a client, in anticipation of a law- 
suit gives retaining fees to lawyers. 

These acts stirred up bad blood in the hearts of the Americans, 
but there was no remedy. Washington himself counseled sub- 
mission to the situation for the present, and with that clear vis- 
ion into the future, for which he was remarkable, looked forward 
to a time when " manifest destiny " would drive the English 
away from the lakes. 

On the 9th of July, 1T88, St. Clair arrived at Marietta, and as 
Governor of the Northwest Territory, set the necessary machin- 
ery in motion to form a government agreeable to his appoint- 
ment by Washington, the President of the United States. 

The first county was laid out with dimensions large enough to 
include all the settlements around Marietta, and was named 
Washington county. About the first of June, 1T90, the Gov- 
ernor, with the Judges of the Superior Court, descended the Ohio 
to Cincinnati, and laid out Hamilton county. A few weeks later 
he, with Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Territory, proceeded 
to Kaskaskia, in the Illinois country, and organized St. Clair 
county. 

Knox county, around Vincennes, was soon afterwards laid out. 
At each of these four counties, courts were established on a model 
which has not been materially changed since. 



Courts Established in the North West. 151 

The Indians beheld these innovations into their country with 
rueful thoughts. The United States had neither surveyed nor sold 
any of these lands that had not been bought and paid fur through 
treaties with certain chiefs, but it was claimed by the great mass 
of Indians that these chiefs had no authority to sell the lands. 

To enumerate the various treaties by which the first purchases 
were made along the Ohio river, would fill a volume with monot- 
onous formula. They are preserved in government archives, but 
are seldom referred to now. 

They were the instruments by which the Indian was driven 
from his native soil, and having executed their mission, are filed 
away like writs of ejectment after having been served. In al- 
most all cases they were signed by the Indians under a pressure 
from which they could not extricate themselves. 

If they signed them they would get pay for their lands, which 
the borders of advancing civilization had rendered useless i ■ 
them, while if they refused, they would nevertheless be forced 
back without any remuneration. The chiefs could plainly see 
this, but the great masses of red men could not. Neither could 
they understand how, by virtue of these instruments, the white 
man should come among them, cut away the forests, and whelm 
the fabric of savage suciety in ruin. 

In vain the poetry, the romance, and the conscience of the na- 
tion might lift up its voice in behalf of the poor Indian. There 
was but one way in which he could be saved, which was to beat 
his scalping knife into a plowshare, and till the soil, but he was 
as incapable of doing this as the drones in the hive of industry in 
our day are to contribute to the public weal their share of its 
burdens. 

Having established courts at Kaskaskia and Yineenne-. St. 
Clair returned to his headquarters at Cincinnati early in the sum- 
mer of the same year, 1790. During his absence the outcrop- 
ping discontents of the Indians had been made manifest by their 
waylaying the emigrants as they came down the Ohio in arks, 
and unless some means were taken to stop these attacks, this 
great and only highway to the AVest would soon be closed. 

This was what the Indians aimed at in their attacks, nor had 
they yet learned the impossibility of the undertaking. 

St. Clair now determined to invade the Indian country to pun- 
ish the disturbers of the peace, and by virtue of authority vested 
in him by the President, he called lor 1,000 militia from Vir- 
ginia,* and 500 from Pennsylvania. 

So careful was President AVashington at this time not to pro- 

* The State of Virginia then included Kentucky, in which settlements had 
been made before the Xorthwest Territory was organizrd. 



1S2 Apology to the English for Fighting the Indians. 

voke a quarrel with the British, that he deemed it imprudent to 
invade the Indian country, without sending an apology to the 
English commander at Detroit, lest he might take offense that 
the Americans had dared to make war on his allies. The follow- 
ing is the letter which St. Clair sent him : 

" Marietta, 19th September, 1790. 
" Sir: — As it is not improbable that an account of the military 
preparations going forward in this quarter of the country may 
reach you, and give you some uneasiness, while the object to 
which they are to be directed is not perfectly known to you, I 
am commanded by the President of the United States to give you 
the fullest assurances of the pacific disposition entertained toward 
Great Britain and all her possessions ; and to inform you ex- 
plicitly that the expedition about to be undertaken is not in- 
tended against the post you have the honor to command, nor any 
other place at present in the possession of the troops of his Bri- 
tannic majesty, but is on foot with the sole design of humbling 
and chastising some of the savage tribes, whose depredations are 
become intolerable, and whose cruelties have of late become an 
outrage, not on the people of America only, but on humanity ; 
which I now do in the most unequivocal manner. After this 
candid explanation, sir, there is every reason to expect, both from 
your own personal character, and from the regard you have for 
that of your nation, that those tribes will meet with neither coun- 
tenance nor assistance from any under your command, and that 
you will do what in your power lies, to restrain the trading peo- 
ple, from whose instigations there is too good reason to believe, 
much of the injuries of the savages has proceeded. I have for- 
warded this letter by a private gentleman, in preference to that 
of an officer, by whom you might have expected a communica- 
tion of this kind, that every suspicion of the purity of the views 
of the United States might be obviated." 

Harmar's whole force amounted to 1,453 men all told. On 
the 26th of September Col. Hardin led the advance to cut a road, 
but the main body did not leave Fort Washington till the 3d of 
October, 1790. 

The objective point was the Miami village at the bend of the 
Maumee, where Fort Wayne now stands. 

After a march of sixteen days, Col. Hardin reached the place 
with the advance, intending to surprise the Indians, but on en- 
tering the village he found it deserted. Their store of corn was 
then rated at twenty thousand bushels in the ear,* which was 
consigned to the flames by the invaders. 

*Brice's History of Fort Wayne, p. 125. 



Little Turtle Defeats Hardin. 183 

The troops were very disorderly, and despite the efforts of Gen. 
Harmar, who soon arrived with the main body, everything like 
reasonable discipline was impossible. 

After a few days the celebrated chief, Little Turtle, fell sud- 
denly upon Col. Hardin's detachment, while some miles away 
from the main body, and put them to flight with heavy loss. Af- 
ter visiting destruction on another Indian village two miles far- 
ther south, Gen. Harmar took up his march for Port Washing- 
ton. 

But ere they left the scene of operations, Little Turtle man- 
aged to bring on another battle with a strong detachment under 
Col. Hardin, and severely defeated them. 

The main body were not brought into action with the Indians 
at all, but continued their retreat to Fort "Washington, where it, 
with Hardin's detachment, arrived on the 4th of November, hav- 
ing lost 183 men killed, besides many who were wounded. 

While this expedition had been in progress, Gen. Hamtramck 
led a force from Yincennes up the Wabash, and destroyed the 
Piankeshaw villages, with their stores. The loss of their corn was 
severely felt by the Indians, but the prestige of victory was with 
them, and they were much elated with the success that had at- 
tended their arms. 

The Indians were emboldened, and the apprehensions of the 
settlements were aroused, particularly those of the Marietta col- 
ony, who were more distant from succor in case of an Indian raid 
than Cincinnati, as the latter was within ready reach of the Ken- 
tucky settlements, where aid could be obtained at short notice. 

After Harmar's expedition, the Indians, firm in the belief that 
the British would make common cause with them in their war 
with the United States, sent a deputation to Lord Dorchester, 
who then held command at Detroit, to learn from him the amount 
of support they could expect in the coming war. 

Up to this time such inquiries had been answered with meta- 
phor, uttered from the tongues of such villainous apostates of 
civilization as Girty, Elliot and McGee. 

This notorious trio had used every means in their power to 
deceive the Indians into the belief that the English were ready 
to take up the hatchet in their behalf. Xor can it be denied that 
the English officers themselves had given the Indians grounds 
for such expectations. Indeed, they had, according to savage 
rites, pledged themselves to such a policy by making the Indians 
presents of hatchets, painted red as blood, by which emblem the 
Indian is bound as solemnly as by vows, and he had no reason 
to look upon such a symbol as not equally binding on the part of 
the whites, till he learned to the contrary by experience. 



184 Scottfs Expedition. 

The issue soon came before Lord Dorchester in unequivocal 
form, and he declined the warlike proposals, greatly to the disap- 
pointment of his swarthy friends. No pretext offered for war 
with the United States, thanks to the prudence of Washington 
and Jay, by whose flexible but transcendant policy, any expecta- 
tions which the English might entertain of winning jurisdiction 
over the Northwest had vanished into a forlorn hope. 

Harmar's expedition having made no impression on the Indians, 
another was planned, to be undertaken the next year, 1791, by 
General Charles Scott. It consisted of eight hundred mounted 
men, the flower of Kentucky bush-fighters, and its destination 
was the Indian towns on the Wabash above Yincennes. The 
place was soon reached by the mounted scouts, the Indian towns 
destroyed, and about fifty prisoners taken, but no decisive action 
was fought. 

This expedition, like Harmar's which preceded it, only 
served to inflame the resentment of the Indians and widen the 
breach between them and the whites into an impassable gulf. 

Scott's raid was succeeded by another similar one under Gen- 
eral Wilkinson, the succeeding summer. He went up the Wa- 
bash as far as Ouiatanon laying waste towns and fields as he 
went. Ouiatanon was then a thriving village of about seventy 
comfortable dwellings besides many Indian huts. It was com- 
posed of French, halt-breeds and Indians, and many signs of 
progress, such as books and pictures, were manifest in this wilder- 
ness post. Their fields of corn were cultivated with ploughs, 
like the English and their horses and cows were well taken care 
of.* 

The town was burnt and everything destroyed that the invaders 
could seize, whether the property of French or Indians. They 
all belonged to a less ambitious race than the Americans. The 
French and Indians had lived together here since 1733, and the 
hybrid offspring that rose up in the forest in consequence, was 
essentially Indian in social matters, while the French themselves 
manifested no disposition to break through the toils of savage 
manners, customs and superstitions. Whatever may have been 
their standard of honor or their communistic propensities of 
equality and indisposition to eclipse each other in wealth or 
grandeur, these were the last qualifications that would recom- 
mend them to the favor of Americans, whose motto is Excelsior. 

*Am. State Papers, Vol. V. p. 121. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Little Turtle — His Easterly Abilities — Privations of the Early 
Settlers — St. Clair's Expedition against the Indians — His 
Defeat — Its Causes — He Resigns — Gen. Anthony Wayne 
Succeeds him — Peace Commissioners on the Canada Border — 
The Indians claim the Ohio River as a Boundary Line 
betvjeen Themselves and the Whites — The Terms Inadmissible 
and the Council a Failure. 

Among the forest heroes whose exploits have made their his- 
tory illustrious in their downfall, was a chief named Little Turtle. 
Gifted with the essential qualities which make up the model 
great man in civilized communities, and nearty exempt from the 
eccentricities peculiar to his race, his many virtues shone with 
untarnished lustre amidst the turmoil of the camp and the venge- 
ful spirit of the times. He was not a chief by birth, but rose to 
that distinction per force of his merit, both as counselor and 
warrior, and at maturity he became principal chief of the Miamis, 
and the acknowledged leader of the neighboring tribes who had 
confederated themselves together to beat back the white invaders 
of their soil. Immediately after the raids of Harmar, Scott and 
Wilkinson, the forest echoed with the war-whoop from the 
Muskingum to the Wabash. The Miamis, Chippewas, Dela- 
wares, Pottawattomies, Hurons and Shawanese, gathered under 
the banner of Little Turtle, who, with the assistance of Girty, 
McGee and Elliot, and his subordinate chiefs, constituted the best 
drilled army of Indian warriors that ever 1 ought the w T hite man. 
St. Clair had foreseen all this vengeful animosity that rankled in 
the hearts of the Indians, and had made preparations to meet it. 
The country over which he had been appointed governor was a 
wilderness of forest and prairie, tenanted by its native inhabi- 
tants; some of whom, under the tutelage of the French, had 
erected log cabins to live in instead of bark huts. The American 
settlers did not number two thousand in the entire territory. 
They were settled within the limits of Washington county, at the 
mouth of the Muskingum and Symes' Purchase, on the Ohio, 

(185) 



186 



Intrigues of Sjpain. 



embracing Cincinnati and its vicinity. To these may be added a 
few Americans settled amongst the French villages of the Illinois 
country, and also among the settlers at Vincennes. Thriving set- 
tlements had started in Kentucky from the parent State of Vir- 
ginia, and these were the main dependence of the inhabitants 
north of the Ohio river, in case of a sudden Indian outbreak. 

The situation of the inhabitants in the entire valley of the Mis- 
sissippi was complicated with untried conditions. England still 
held the entire lake country, Spain held the west bank of the Mis- 
sissippi and the port of New Orleans, and was putting forth her 
utmost exertions to induce the people of Kentucky to cecede from 
the United States, and to this end closed the navigation of the 
Mississippi, refusing to make it free to the Western people, except 
on conditions that they would cut loose from the parent stem and 
set up a government under the protection of Spain. To bring 
about this she sent intriguing emissaries to Kentucky; nor did 
they fail to get some encouragement. Under this double pres- 
sure, the settlers of the Northwest maintained an unshaken con- 
fidence in their ability to struggle through all the writhings of 
their crooked path. 

They labored incessantly at their daily toil, and were contented 
with the coarsest fare, Corn meal mixed with water, baked on a 
board turned up to the fire, was almost the only bread they had, and 
all they wanted. Their meat, besides what game they shot, was 
pork, fattened on the nuts of the forest, which they called mast. 
Within the territory at this time were four American forts: Fort 
Knox, at Yincennes, garrisoned with 80 men; Ft. Washington, at 
Cincinnati, with 75 men; Ft. Steuben, twenty-two miles above 
Wheeling, on the Ohio River, with 61 men; and Campus Martius, 
at Marietta, with 45 men. 

The latter place represented the blandishments of Boston, the 
classical learning of Yale, and the patriotism of Bunker Hill. 
Here the first laws to govern the new territory were published; 
and here its first courts were established, and though Gen. St. 
Clair's headquarters were at Cincinnati, Marietta was by far the 
most congenial place for his family to reside in. Accordingly suit- 
able appartments were fitted up for their accommodation in Cam- 
pus Martius. In Louisa, his oldest daughter, were united the 
Western heroine with the refinements of Philadelphia, where she 
was educated. In the winter of 1790, she was often seen skating 
on the Muskingum river, in which exercise few of the young 
officers could equal her in activity. During successive years she 
often rode through the adjacent forests on horseback, armed with 
her rifle, undaunted by the dangers of Indian ambuscades. Her 
skill in the use of this weapon was sometimes turned to a good 



/St. Clair Invades the Indian Country. 187 

account in the wild game with which she furnished her father's 
table, shot by the bullet under the fatal aim of her blue eye. 

Hildreth, the pioneer historian, in his rapturous praises of 
her surpassing beauty and grace, in his imagination substitutes 
a bow and arrow for her rifle, and sees her flying through the 
wooded heather, mounted on her high mettled steed, like Diana, 
the daughter of Jupiter, and goddess of hunting. 

In this gifted lady was represented the type of American 
genius, the transcendent images of civilization, before which 
all bow with loyalty and devotion. Should this power supplant 
the barbarism of the forest, and make it teem with joy and 
beauty multiplied with years? or should the inherent rights of 
the Indians be respected, and the country which he owned be 
held sacred to the chase and occupied only by the tenants of the 
wigwam? This was the question before the American people, 
especially the pioneer who had crossed the Ohio, which was then 
looked upon by the Indians as a partition line between the 
whites and themselves. 

On the 15th of May, 1791, Gen. St. Clair arrived at Ft. Wash- 
ington, which was to be the rallying point for the troops destined 
to invade the Indian country. By a special act of Congress, 
3,000 men were to be raised for this service from Xew Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia; but owing to the poverty 
of the country, as well as the long continued draft upon its 
sinews of war, the quota had not been filled. The rising State 
of Kentucky, however, came to the rescue, and sent -11 S men to 
partially supply the deficiency. On the 17th of September the 
whole force was gathered at Ludlow's Station, five miles north of 
Ft. Washington, and the march began. 

The first day brought the army to the banks of the Big 
Miami where Fort Hamilton was built, which is the site of the 
present beautiful town of Hamilton, twenty -four miles north of 
Cincinnati. 

Continuing northwardly forty-two miles, Fort Jefferson was 
built on the 21th, six miles south of the present town of Green- 
ville, in Dark county. Delays in the arrival of provisions for 
the troops, caused murmuring among the militia, and three 
hundred of them deserted. On the 30th, the army made another 
advance of seven miles. 

On the 3d of November it had arrived at the head waters of 
the Wabash, where it encamped in order of battle, as the enemy 
were supposed to be near. 

The next day, before sunrise, just after the early morning 
drill, an advance corps of the army were attacked and driven in 
with great precipitancy upon the main body. Little Turtle, who 



188 Defeat of The Americans. 

commanded the Indians, with his natural penetration, made the 
most of this success by following it up with such promptness 
that the disorder in St. Clair's army, occasioned by his dashing 
charge, was never fully recovered from, although the action soon 
became general, and several successful bayonet charges under 
Col. Darke, caused the Indians to retreat for a short time, but 
only to renew the battle fiercer than ever. 

At nine o'clock it became evident to St. Clair that the day was 
lost. One-third of his men laid dead or wounded on the ground, 
which they could no longer defend. The artillery was silent for 
the want of men to serve it. General Butler, the second in com- 
mand, laid mortally wounded, while his own clothes were pierced 
with bullets; for he, with his accustomed courage, had shared 
the dangers of the soldiers. Under these distressing circum- 
stances, he executed a skillful manouver in the face of the tri- 
umphant enemy, and secured a retreat with less loss than was 
feared might result from a headlong flight before a fleet-footed 
and victorious foe. His camp equipage and most of the wounded 
were left in the hands of the victors. His losses were 39 officers 
and 593 men killed, and 22 officers and 242 men wounded. 
Little Turtle reported his loss at 150 killed, and from his un- 
challenged record for integrity, his report may be taken as 
correct. 

The most rigid scrutiny failed to cast any blame on the con- 
duct of St. Clair in this disastrous battle, but attributed the 
defeat to the want of discipline in the raw recruits of which his 
army was composed, not forgetting, with all, to state that the 
Indians fought with exemplary courage, directed by the master 
mind of Little Turtle. 

More than a century ago there was a school of naturalists, 
composed largely of French savants, who promulgated a theory 
based on scientific principles, as they averred that America did 
not produce the higher grades of animals; that even man would 
become dwarfed in body and mind in that unfriendly climate, 
unless fresh European blood was constantly infused into his veins 
by emigration and intermarriage. 

This theory must fall to the ground when the soil of America 
produces such men as Little Turtle, whose great mind, not trace- 
able to European origin, shone forth even more conspicuously in 
his statesman-like counsels after the battle than ever before, as 
will appear in the history of the next campaign. This theory, 
however, had already been put to the blush by Dr. Benjamin 
Franklin, when he was in Paris in 1783, as minister to settle 
terms of peace with England after the Revolution. On a certain 
day he invited a number of the literati of France to dine with 



Peace Council. IS 9 

liim. Some casualty turning the subject on the natural history 
of America, one of the guests asked Franklin's opinion on the 
then acknowledged inferiority of animal growth there. The 
attention of the whole company was now arrested to listen to the 
profound words of the American philosopher, and when he arose 
from his seat, and requested his American friends to do the same, 
the interest was redoubled. The six Americans present arose — 
all muscular, overgrown men, with a full measure of brains and 
thorough bass voices. "Now let six Frenchmen arise," said the 
sage of the New World. Up started the required number of 
Parisians, whose slender frames and pale faces contrasted unfavor- 
ably with the Americans. This settled the point. 

When the terrible defeat of St. Clair is read, let it not be for- 
gotten that the soil of the Northwest nurtured into being the 
men to accomplish it in defense of their homes; and if this brave 
and eloquent people had enjoyed the advantages of civilization, 
we could not have conquered them, nor should we have wished 
to. Even under all their disadvantages they made a valiant de- 
fense, and in the grandeur of their fall left ample proofs that 
muscle and mind are indigenous to our soil. 

After this disastrous campaign emigration ceased, but the 
American forts were all held, including Fort Hamilton and Fort 
Jefferson, which had been built by St. Clair on his way into the 
Indian country. From prudential as well as patriotic motives, 
he now resigned his position as commander-in-chief of the army, 
and General Anthony Wayne was substituted in his place. Five 
thousand men were to be raised for the expedition, which he was 
to lead against Little Turtle. While these preparations were 
making for the new campaign, Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Ran- 
dolph and Timothy Pickering, were appointed as commissioners 
in behalf of the United States, to meet the Indians in council 
near the mouth of Detroit river, not distant from the Indian 
camp at the rapids of the Maumee, and if possible negotiate a 
peace. Among the secret instructions which were given them 
by Washington, the President of the United States, they were 
required to make the treaty of Fort Harmar the basis of a peace. 
By this treaty, the eastern and southern portions of the present 
State of Ohio had been ceded to the United States, although the 
Indians disputed the validity of the treaty, on the ground that 
the tribes most interested had taken no part in it. Other instruc- 
tions authorized the commissioners to make some concessions to 
the Indians, by giving up some lands already occupied out- 
side of the limits established by the treaty of Fort Harmar. 

They were also authorized to give to the Indians fifty thousand 
dollars worth of goods immediately, and ten thousand dollars 



190 , President Washington's Speech. 

worth annually forever. Twenty thousand dollars in coin was to 
be given to the head chiefs besides the above. The commission- 
ers arrived on the ground in July, 1793, by way of the lakes, 
courteously assisted by the English in their methods of travel at 
that time. While the council was in session, Gen. Wayne's 
army remained near Cincinnati, waiting its result, and the In- 
dians, on their part, faithfully preserved a peaceful attitude, 
according to a previous agreement on both sides. The great 
point for which the Indians contended was that the Ohio river 
should forever be the boundary line between themselves and the 
whites; and the arguments they used to sustain this claim, can 
be best understood by quoting extracts from their speeches, and 
the replies to them by the commissioners. 

Previous to the meeting of these commissioners with the In- 
dians, as proposed, Major Trueman and Col. Hardin left Fort 
Washington, with copies of a speech from President Washington 
to the hostile Indians, of which the following is an extract: 

Brothers: The President of the United States entertains the 
opinion that the war which exists is founded in error and mistake 
on your parts: that you believe the United States wants to de- 
prive you of your lands, and drive you out of the country. Be 
assured this is not so: on the contrary, that we should be greatly 
gratified with the opportunity of imparting to you all the bless- 
ings of civilized life, of teaching you to cultivate the earth, and 
raise corn; to raise oxen, sheep, and other domestic animals; to 
build comfortable houses, and to educate your children, so as ever 
to dwell upon the land. War, at all times, is a dreadful evil to 
those who are engaged therein, and more particularly so where a 
few people engaged to act against so great numbers as the people 
of the U nited States. Brothers : Do not suffer the advantages you 
have gained to mislead your judgment, and influence you to con- 
tinue the war: but reflect upon the destructive consequences 
which must attend such a measure. The President of the United 
States is highly desirous of seeing a number of your principle 
chiefs, and convincing you, in person, how much he wishes to 
avoid the evils of war for your sake, and the sake of humanity. 
Consult, therefore, upon the great object of peace; call in your 
parties, and enjoin a cessation of all further depredations; and 
as many of the principal chiefs as shall choose, repair to Phila- 
delphia, the seat of the general government, and there make a 
peace, founded on the principles of justice and humanity. Re- 
member that no additional lands will be required of you, or any 
other tribe, to those that have been ceded by former treaties, par- 
ticularly by the tribes who had a right to make the treaty of 
Muskingum, [Fort Harmar,] in the year 1789. But, if any of 



The Indians Demand the Ohio as a Boundary. 191 

your tribes can prove that you have a fair right to any lands 
comprehended by the said treaty, and have not been compensated 
therefor, you shall receive a full satisfaction upon that head. The 
chiefs you send shall be safely escorted to this city; and shall be 
well fed and provided with all things for their journey. * * 
Gome, then, and be convinced for yourselves, of the beneficence 
of General "Washington, the great chief of the United States, and 
afterward return and spread the glad tidings of peace and pros- 
perity of the Indians to the setting sun." 

The council was opened on the 30th of July, by Simon Girty, 
interpreter, who presented, in behalf of the Indians, the following 
paper to the commissioners: 

" To the Commissioners of the United States. Brothers: 
The deputies we sent to you did not fully explain our meaning; 
we have therefore sent others, to meet you once more, that you 
may fully understand the great question we have to ask of you, 
and to which we expect an explicit answer in writing. Brothers: 
You are sent here by the United States, in order to make peace 
with us, the confederate Indians. Brothers: You know very 
well that the boundary line, which was run between the white 
people and us, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, was the river Ohio. 
Brothers* If you seriously design to make a firm and lasting 
peace, you will immediately remove all your people from our 
side of that river. Brothers: We therefore ask you, are you fully 
authorized by the United States to continue, and firmly fix on the 
Ohio river as the boundary line between your people and ours? 
Done in general council at the foot of the Maumee Bapids, 27th 
July, 1793, in behalf of ourselves, and the whole confederacy, 
and agreed to in a full council." 

To this opening of the case the commissioners replied: 

" Brothers: We do know very well, that at the treaty of Fort 
Stanwix, twenty-five years ago, the river Ohio was agreed on as 
the boundary line between you and the white people of the Brit- 
ish colonies; and we all know that, about seven years after that 
boundary was fixed, a quarrel broke out between your father, the 
King of Great Britain, and the people of those colonies, which 
are now the United States. This quarrel was ended by the treaty 
of peace, made with the King, about ten years ago, by which the 
Great lakes, and the waters which unite them were, by him, 
declared to be the boundaries of the United States. 

•'Brothers: Peace having been thus made between the King 
of Great Britain and the United States, it remained to make 
peace between them and the Indian nations who had taken part 
with the King; for this purpose, commissioners were appointed, 
who sent messages to all those Indian nations, inviting them to 



192 Indian Terms Not Entertained, 

come and make peace. The first treaty was held about nine 
years ago, at Fort Stanwix, with the Six Nations, which has stood 
firm and un violated to this day. The next treaty was made about 
ninety days after, at Fort Mcintosh, with the half king of the 
Wyandots, Captain Pipe, and other chiefs, in behalf of the 
Wyandot, Delaware, Ottawa, and Chippewa nations. Afterward 
treaties were made with divers Indian nations south of the Ohio 
river; and the next treaty was made with Ka-kia-pilathy, here 
present, and other Shawnee chiefs, in behalf of the Shawnee 
nation, at the mouth of the Great Miami, which runs into the 
Ohio. 

"Brothers: The commissioners who conducted the treaties in 
behalf of the United States, sent the papers containing them to 
the great council of the States, who, supposing them satisfactory 
to the nations treated with, proceeded to dispose of large tracts 
of land thereby ceded, and a great number of people removed 
from other parts of the United States, and settled upon them; 
also many families of your ancient fathers, the French, came over 
the great waters, and settled upon a part of the same lands.* 

"Brothers: After some time, it appeared that a number of 
people in your nations were dissatisfied with the treaties of Fort 
Mcintosh and Miami; therefore the great council of the United 
States appointed Governor St. Clair their commissioner, with full 
powers, for the purpose of removing all causes of controversy, regu- 
lating trade, and settling boundaries, between the Indian nations 
in the northern department and the United States. He accordingly 
sent messages, inviting all the nations concerned to meet him at 
a council fire which he kindled at the falls of the Muskingum. 
While he was waiting for them, some mischief happened at that 
place, and the fire was put out; so he kindled a council fire at 
Fort Harmar, where near six hundred Indians, of different 
nations, attended. The Six Nations then renewed and confirmed 
the treaty of Fort Stanwix ; and the Wyandots and Delawares 
renewed and confirmed the treaty of Fort Mcintosh: some Otta- 
was, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, and Sacs, were also parties, to 
the treaty of Fort Harmar. 

" Brothers: All these treaties we have here with us. We have 
also the speeches of many chiefs who attended them, and who 
voluntarily declared their satisfaction with the terms of the 
treaties. 

"Brothers: After making all these treaties, and after hearing 
the chiefs express freely their satisfaction with them, the United 
States expected to enjoy peace, and quietly to hold the lands 
ceded by them. Accordingly, large tracts have been sold and set- 

* The French settlement at Gullipolis. 



Claims Under Old Treaties Pressed. 193 

tied, as before mentioned. And now, brothers, we answer explic- 
itly, that, for the reasons here stated to you, it is impossible to 
make the river Ohio the boundary between your people and the 
people of the United States. 

" Brothers: You. are men of understanding, and if you con- 
sider the customs of white people, the great expenses which 
attend their settling in a new country, the nature of their improve- 
ments, in building houses and barns, and clearing and fencing 
their lands, how valuable the lands are thus rendered, and 
thence how dear they are to .them, you will see that it is 
now impracticable to remove our people from the northern side 
of the Ohio. Your brothers, the English, know the nature of 
white people, and they know that, under the circumstances which 
we have mentioned, the United States can not make the Ohio the 
boundary between you and us. 

"Brothers: You seem to consider all the lands in dispute on 
your side of the Ohio, as claimed by the United States; but 
suffer us to remind you that a large tract was sold by the 
Wyandot and Delaware nations to the State of Pennsylva- 
nia. This tract lies east of a line drawn from the month 
of Beaver creek, at the Ohio, due north to lake Erie. This 
line is the western boundary of Pennsylvania, as claimed under 
the charter given by the king of England to your ancient friend, 
William Penn; of this sale, made by the Wyandot and Dela- 
ware nations to the State of Pennsylvania, we have never heard 
any complaint. 

"Brothers: The concessions which we think necessary on your 
part are, that you yield up, and finally relinquish to the United 
States, some of the lands on your side of the river Ohio. The 
United States wish to have confirmed all the lands ceded, to them 
by the treaty of Fort llarmar; and, also, a small tract of land 
at the rapids of the Ohio, claimed by General Clark,for the use 
of himself and warriors; and, in consideration thereof, the 
United States would give such a large sum, in money or goods, 
as was never given at one time, for any quantity of Indian 
lands, since the white people first set their foot on this island. 
And, because those lands did, every year, furnish you with skins 
and furs, with which you bought clothing and other necessaries, 
the United States will now furnish the like constant supplies; 
and, therefore, besides the great sum to be delivered at once, 
they will, every year, deliver you a large quantity of such goods 
as are best suited to the wants of yourselves, your women, and 
children." 

To these overtures of the commissioners the Indians replied: 

Brothers: It is now three years since you desired to speak 



194: . Tenacious Logic of the Indians. 

with us. We heard you yesterday, and understood yon well — 
perfectly well. We have a few words to say to you. Brothers: 
You mentioned the treaties of Fort Stanwix, Beaver Creek,* and 
other places. Those treaties were not complete. There were but 
a few chiefs who treated with you. You have not bought our 
lands. They belong to us. You tried to draw off some of us. 
Brothers: Many years ago, we all know that the Ohio was made 
the boundary. It was settled by Sir William Johnston. This 
side is ours. We look upon it as our propert} 7 . Brothers : You 
mentioned General Washington. He and you know you have 
your houses and your people on our land. You say you can not 
move them off: and we can not give up our land. Brothers: We 
are sorry we can not come to an agreement. The line has been 
fixed long ago. Brothers: We don't say much. There has been 
much mischief on both sides. We came here upon peace, and 
thought you did the same. We shall talk to our head warriors. 
You may return whence you came, and tell Washington." 

" The council here breaking up, Captain Elliot went to the 
Shawnee chief Ka-kia-pilathy, and told him that the last part of 
the speech was wrong. That chief came back, and said it was 
wrong. G-irty said that he had interpreted truly what the Wyan- 
dot chief spoke. An explanation took place; and G-irty added 
as follows: i Brothers: Instead of going home, we wish you to 
remain here for an answer from us. We have your speech in 
our breasts, and shall consult our head warriors.' The deputa- 
tion of Indians were then told that the commissioners would 
wait to hear again from the council at the Rapids of theMaumee." 

u On the 16th of August, 1793, Messrs. Lincoln, Randolph, 
and Pickering, received the following answer (in writing), to 
their speech of the 31st of July: 

" To the Commissioners of the United States. Brothers: We 
have received your speech, dated the 31st of last month, and 
it has been interpreted to all the different nations. We have 
been long in sending you an answer, because of the great impor- 
tance of the subject. But we now answer it fully; having given 
it all the consideration in our power. 

" Brothers: You tell us that, after you had made peace with the 
King, our father, about ten years ago, ' it remained to make peace 
between the United States and the Indian nations who had taken 
part with the King. For this purpose, commissioners were 
appointed, who sent messages to all those Indian nations, invit- 
ing them to come and make peace; ' and, after reciting the peri- 
od's at which you say treaties were held, at Fort Stanwix, Fort 
Mcintosh and Miami, all which treaties, according to your own 

*Fort Mcintosh. 



Decisive Indian Logic. 195 

acknowledgment, were for the sole purpose of making peace, you 
then say: 'Brothers, the commissioners who conducted these 
treaties^ in behalf of the United States, sent the papers contain- 
ing them to the general council of the States, who, supposing 
them satisfactory to the nations treated with, proceeded to dispose 
of the lands thereby ceded.' 

" Brothers: " This is telling us plainly, what we always under- 
stood to be the case, and it agrees with the declarations of those 
few who attended those treaties, viz: That they went to meet 
your commissioners to make peace; but, through fear, were 
obliged to sign any paper that was laid, before them; and it has 
since appeared that deeds of cession were signed by them, instead 
of treaties of peace. 

"Brothers: Money, to us, is of no value; and to most of us 
unknown: and, as no consideration whatever can induce us to 
sell the lands on which we get sustenance for our women and 
children, we hope we may be allowed to point out a mode by 
which your settlers may be easily removed, and peace thereby 
obtained. 

Brothers: "We know that these settlers are poor, or they 
would never have ventured to live in a country which has been 
in continual trouble ever since they crossed the Ohio. Dividt . 
therefore, this large sum of money, which you have offered to 
us, among these people. Give to each, also, a proportion of 
what you say you would give to us, annually, aver and ahove 
this very large sum of money; and we are persuaded they would 
most readily accept of it, in lieu of the lands you sold them. 
If you add, also, the great sums you must expend in raising and 
paying armies, with a view to force us to yield you our country, 
you will certainly have more than sufficient for the purposes of 
repaying these settlers for all their labor and their improvements. 

"■Brothers: You have talked to us about concessions. It 
appears strange that you should expect any from us, who have 
only been defending our just rights against your invasions. We 
want peace. Restore to us our country, and we shall be enemies 
Yio longer. 

Ct Brothers: Yi u ro.ake one concession to us by offering us your 
money; and another, by having agreed to do us justice after 
having long and injuriously withheld it. We mean, in the 
acknowledgment you have now made, that the king of England 
never did, nor ever had a right, to give you our country, by the 
treaty of peace. And you want to make this act of common 
justice a great part of your concessions; and seem to expect 
that, because you have at last acknowledged our independence, 
we should, for such a favor, surrender to you our country. 



196 The Ultimatum. 

"Brothers: You have talked also a great deal about preemp- 
tion, and your exclusive right to purchase Indian lands, as ceded 
to you by the king at the treaty of peace. 

"Brothers: We never made any agreement with the king, nor 
with any other nation, that we would give to either the exclusive 
right of purchasing our lands. And we declare to you, that we 
consider ourselves free to make any bargain or cession of lands 
whenever and to whomsoever we please. If the white people, as 
you say, made a treaty that none of them but the king should 
purchase of us, and that he has given that right to* the United 
States, it is an affair which concerns you and him, and not us. 
We have never parted with such a power. 

" Brothers: At our general council held at the Glaize last fall, 
we agreed to meet commissioners from the United States, for the 
purpose of restoring peace, provided they consented to acknowl- 
edge and confirm our boundary line to be the Ohio; and we 
determined not to meet you until you gave us satisfaction on 
that point. That is the reason we have never met. We desire 
you to consider, brothers, that our only demand is the peaceable 
possession of a small part of our once great country. Look 
back, and review the lands from whence we have been driven to 
this spot. We can retreat no farther, because the country behind 
hardly affords food for its present inhabitants; and we have, there- 
fore, resolved to leave our bones in this small space to which we 
are now confined. 

"Brothers: We shall be persuaded that you mean to do us 
justice, if you agree that the Ohio shall remain the boundary line 
between us. If you will not consent thereto, our meeting will be 
altogether unnecessary. This is the great point which we hoped 
would have been explained before you left your homes, as our 
message, last fall, was principally directed to obtain that inform- 
ation. 

" Done in general council, at the foot of the Maumee Kapids, 
the 13th day of August, 1793." 

It was now evident that the council would prove a failure, as 
the terms of the Indians were inadmissible. The commissioners 
therefore made the following declaration, and the session ad- 
journed without effecting its purpose, each party departing, not 
without painful regrets, to renew a conflict desperate on the part 
of the Indians, and doubtful on the part of the whites : 

" To the Chiefs and Warriors of the Indian Nations assem- 
bled at the foot of the Maumee Rapids: Brothers: We have 
just received your answer, dated the 13th instant, to our speech 
of the 31st of last month, which we deliverd to your deputies at 
this place. You say it was interpreted to all your nations, and 






The Council Ends* 197 

we presume it was fully understood. We therein explicitly de- 
clared to you, that it was now impossible to make the river Ohio 
the boundary between your lands and the lands of the United 
States. Your answer amounts to a declaration that you will 
agree to no other boundary than the Ohio. The negotiation is, 
therefore, at an end. We sincerely regret that peace is not the 
result; but, knowing the upright and liberal views of the United 
States — which, as far as you gave us an opportunity, we have 
explained to you — we trust that impartial judges will not attri- 
bute the continuance of the war to them. 

" Done at Captain Elliott's, at the mouth of Detroit river, the 
16th day of August, 1793. 

BENJAMIN" LINCOLN, ) Commissioners 
BEVERLEY RANDOLPH, V of the 

TIMOTHY PICKERING, ) United States." 

The council, which had been in session seventeen clays, ending 
in failure, the commissioners made all haste to Ft. Erie in Penn- 
sylvania, which was then the outermost post of the Americans 
on the lakes. From there they sent the news of their unsuccess- 
ful mission to General Wayne, then waiting the issue at Ft. Wash- 
ington. In justice to the English, it should not be omitted that 
they extended exemplary courtesy to the American commission- 
ers in providing the means of transportation to and from the 
place where the council was held, at the mouth of the Maumee, 
as well as by other marks of respect from Governor Simcoe 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Genet, the Minister of the New French Republic, Sent to the 
United States — Abase of his Power Dangerous to America — 
He is Recalled at the Request of Jefferson — General Wayne 
marches against the Indians — Builds Fort Recovery — The 
Indians Attach the Place — Are Repulsed — Evidence of En- 
glish Complicity with the Indian Cause — General Wayne Ad- 
vances to the Saint Mary's River — Sends Peace Proposals to 
Little Turtle — He wishes to accept them, hut is Overruled in 
the Council — A Decisive Battle Ensues — General Wayne un- 
der the Guns of the English Fort — The English Commander 
Takes Offense — An angry Correspondence Ensues — English 
View of the Case — Fort Wayne Built — Treaty of Greenville — 
Little Turtles Honorable Record — His death — Public Honors 
to his Memory — The Free Navigation of the Mississippi 
conceded by Spain — The English give up the American 
Posts on theLakes — Cleveland Settled. 

A little before midnight, August 1st, 1793, two officers of the 
French Revolutionary government, entered the apartments of 
Marie Antoinette and aroused her from a disquiet sleep. From 
there she was conducted to a still closer confinement in a prison 
cell, eight feet long, furnished only with a bed of straw. On the 
16th of October she was executed, and her head severed from 
her body, was held up to the view of the thousands assembled 
there to see the blood of their queen (whose graces had charmed 
the courts of Europe,) dripping over the bare arms of her execu- 
tioner. These and other excesses of the Revolutionary govern- 
ment, caused an immediate declaration of war by England, 
Holland, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Peidmont, 
the Two Sicilies and the Roman States, against France. On the 
8th of April, 1793, Genet, the Minister of the new French 
Republic, which had accomplished these political tragedies, 
arrived in the United States. He was received with enthusiasm 
as a fitting memorial of gratitude for the timely services of 
France, so recently rendered to the United States in its struggle 

(198) 



French Minister Recalled. 199 

for liberty, for the people, in their blind zeal in the cause of Re- 
publicanism, did not stop to call in question the means by which 
it was obtained. It was confidently expected by Genet, that the 
United States would make common cause with Trance, in her 
headlong career of revolution, which at one time threatened to 
sweep through Europe, and the tempting prize which he held 
forth to the American people, to secure their co-operation, was 
w r ell calculated to make them set their feet into the treacherous 
snare, and would have succeeded but for the discernment of the 
Fathers of our Republic, particularly Washington, Adams and 
Jay. Entering with masterly zeal upon his labors, with an 
overstrain perhaps not inconsistent with the genius of his 
government, Genet abused his prerogatives by fitting out 
French vessels on American waters, by establishing recruiting 
quarters in South Carolina, to raise troops for the invasion of the 
Spanish possessions of Florida, and also recruiting quarters in 
Kentucky to raise troops for the invasion of Spanish territory 
west of the Mississippi, with a view to open that stream for the 
free navigation of Western Commerce. The latter was a very 
popular measure among the Kentuckians, and it required the 
utmost exertions of the American cabinet to circumvent the 
designs of Genet, which if allowed to go on, would have involved 
us in a war with Spain. It is equally certain also, that England 
would have declared war against us if Genet had succeeded in his 
designs of invading Spanish territory with American troops, for 
Spain was then the active ally of England against France, in which 
case the English forces in Canada would have made common 
cause with Little Turtle, who with the Spanish soldiers from Xew 
Orleans added to them, could have driven every American settler 
out of the country west of the Ohio. To guard against these 
calamities, Washington determined to issue a proclamation, warn- 
ing the Western people against enlisting in the service against 
the Spaniards, and Jefferson, Secretary of State, wrote a letter to 
Gouverneur Morris, our Minister to France, requesting the 
removal of Genet. This prompt action was taken while Genet 
was very popular among the masses in America, having secured 
their favour by promising not only to open the free navigation 
of the Mississippi, but also proposing to pay off the American 
debt by purchasing provisions for the French soldiers while they 
were engaged in dethroning the monarchs of Europe. But ere all 
this was accomplished he was re-called from his post, and Mr. 
Fauchet substituted in his place. The new minister soon made 
amends for the high-handed manner by which his predecessor had 
assumed responsibilities too grave even for the Father of his 
country. That the timely removal of Genet saved America from 
a war with England and Spain is evident, from the fact that dur- 



200 Gen. Wayne Marches Against the Indians. 

ing the height of his career in the West, Governor Simcoe, of 
Canada, was ordered by the English Parliament to build a fort at 
the Maumee Rapids, about twenty miles above the mouth of that 
stream, in the heart of the Indian country, and far within the 
limits of American territory, as settled by the treaty of 1783, a 
measure doubtless taken under conviction that war with the 
United States would soon be declared. A special messenger from 
the Spanish provinces visited the hostile tribes at the same time, 
offering them assistance. 

While this indecision marked the councils of the English and 
Spanish, a respectable force had gathered at Fort Washington, 
and were encamped below on the banks of the Ohio river. Con- 
gress had passed an act to raise 5,000 men for the expedition, but 
owing to reluctance in enlisting, sickness and desertion, Wayne's 
army numbered no more than 3,600 men. Meantime it was all 
important that the offensive should be taken as soon as it was 
known that the late negotiations for peace had resulted in 
failure. Accordingly Wayne took up his march by the way of 
Forts Hamilton and Jefferson, and reached the vicinity of the 
upper tributaries of the Wabash and also the Big Miami on the 
24th of December, 1793. Here he built Fort Greenville, which 
he made his winter quarters. 

Soon after his arrival here, he sent a strong detachment to the 
battle ground of the unfortunate .St. Clair, which was but a short 
distance from Fort Greenville, where he built Fort Recovery. 
Here the bones of the slain which had been mouldering in the 
forest shades for two years, were gathered together and buried. 

The winter was spent in the necessary work of drilling and 
disciplining the troops, no enemy making their appearance till 
the 30th of June, 1791:, when a heavy force of Indians, assisted by 
50 Canadian British subjects, made a furious attack on- Fort Re- 
cove^. The action was very obstinate and resulted in severe 
losses on both sides, but the fort was not taken, and the Indians 
fell back to the main body. 

Just before this action, two Pottowattomies had been taken 
prisoners by Captain Gibson, and in reply to questions as to ex- 
pectations of assistance, answered as follows: 

Q. When did your nation receive the invitation from the 
British to join them, and go to war with the Americans? 

A. On the first of the last moon; the message was sent by 
three chiefs — a Delaware, a Shawanee, and a Miami. 

Q. What was the message brought by those Indian chiefs, 
and what number of British troops were at Roche de Bout (foot 
of rapids of the Maumee) on the first day of May? 

A. That the British sent them to invite the Pottawatomies to 
go to war against the United States; that they, the British, were 



Indian Testimony. 201 

then at Roche de Bout, on their way to war against the Ameri- 
cans; that the number of British troops then there were about 
four hundred, with two pieces of artillery, exclusive of the De- 
troit militia, and had made a fortification round Col. McKee's 
house and stores at that place, in which they had deposited all 
their stores of ammunition, arms, clothing and provision, with 
which they promised to supply all the hostile Indians in abun- 
dance, provided they would join and go with them to war. 

Q. What tribes of Indians, and what were their numbers, at 
at Boche de Bout on the first of May ? 

A. The Chippewas, Wyandots, Shawanese, Tawas. Delawares 
and Miamis. There were then collected about one thousand war- 
riors, and were daily coming in and collecting from all those na- 
tions. 

Q. What number of warriors do you suppose actually col- 
lected at that place at this time, and what number of British 
troops and militia have promised to join the Indians to fight this 
army ? 

A. By the latest and best information, and from our own 
knowledge of the number of warriors belonging to those nations, 
there cannot be less than two thousand warriors now assembled; 
and were the Pottawattomies to join, agreeably to invitation, the 
whole would amount to up>wards of three thousand hostile Indians. 
But we do not think that more than fifty of the Fottawatomies 
will go to war. 

The British troops and militia that will join the Indians to go 
to war against the Americans, will amount to fifteen hundred, 
agreeably to the promise of Gov. Simcoe. 

Q. At what time and at what place do the British and Indians 
mean to advance against this army ! 

A. About the last of this moon, or the beginning of the next, 
they intend to attack the legion of this place" Gov! Simcoe, the 
great man who lives at or near Niagara, sent for the Pottawat- 
omies, and promised them arms, ammunition, provisions and 
clothing, and everything they wanted, on condition that they 
would join him, and go to war against the Americans, and that 
he would command the whole. He sent us the same message 
last winter, and again on the first of the last moon, from Boche 
deBout; he also said he was much obliged to us for our past ser- 
vices, and that he would now help us to fight and render us all 
the services in his power against the Americans. All the speeches 
that we have received from him, were as red as blood; all the 
wampum and feathers were painted red; the war pipes and hatch- 
ets were red, and even the tobacco was painted red. We received 
four different invitations from Gov. Simcoe, inviting the Pot- 
tawatomies to join in the war; the last was on the first of last 



202 Wayne's Victory. 

moon, when he promised to join us with 1,500 of his warriors, as 
before mentioned. But we wished for peace, except a few of our 
foolish young men. 

Examined and carefully reduced to writing, at Greenville, this 
7th of Jane, 1794 * 

On the 28th of July following, General Wayne commenced a 
forward movement, reaching the St. Mary's river on the 1st of 
August. On the 8th he arrived at the south branch of the Mau- 
mee, and continuing his course down its banks, he came to the 
vicinity of the Rapids on the 20th, where the British fort was 
visible, around which the Indian army under Little Turtle were 
hovering, not without hopes of assistance. His entire army were 
concealed among the prostrated trees of the forest, which a tor- 
nado had leveled to the ground a few years before, where this dis- 
tinguished chief was debating in his own mind what was the 
best course to pursue. * * Gen. Wayne had just sent peace 
proposals to Little Turtle. 

" We have beaten the enemy twice under separate command- 
ers, and we cannot expect the same good fortune always to attend 
us," said the cautious veteran to his chiefs. Continuing, he says: 
" The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps; the 
night and day are alike to him ; and during all the time that he 
has been marching upon our villages, notwithstanding the watch- 
fulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise 
him. Think well of it. There is something whispers me it 
would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace." 

This wise counsel was disregarded b} 7 the other chiefs, and Lit- 
tle Turtle was forced to battle, lest he might rest under the im- 
putation of cowardice. 

On the 20th of August, General Wayne came upon the army 
of Little Turtle, who were concealed among the fallen trees a few 
miles from the British fort. The Indians were routed, although 
they fought with masterly courage; but they could not stand 
against the furious bayonet charge made against them by Wayne's 
soldiers. In their flight they pressed towards the British fort, 
hoping, doubtless, to find protection within its walls, but the 
gates were shut in the faces of the wretched fugitives, and they 
tied thence to the covert of the forest. 

After the battle, Gen. Wayne destroyed their fields of corn on 
the Maumee. Says he, in his report: 

"The very extensive and highly cultivated fields and gardens 
show the work of many hands. The margin of these beautiful 
rivers. The Miamis of the lake (or Maumee) and Au Glaize 
appear like a continued village for a number of miles, both above 

* American State Papers, V. 489, 



English View of the Situation. 203 

and below this place. Nor have I ever before beheld such 
immense fields of corn in any part of America from Canada to 
Florida." 

After the battle, Col. Campbell, the commander of the British 
fort, addressed General Wayne a note, protesting against the 
near approach of the Americans, who were then within the 
reach of his gnns. A spicy correspondence ensued, more noted 
for keen repartee than courtesy, but happily no act of hostility 
took place. 

To show the spirit which the English evinced in building the fort, 
and the light in which they viewed the position of its commander, 
the following is inserted from that able representative of British 
policy, Isaac Weld, whose notes were made during his travels in 
America the next year, while the excitements were at their 
height: 

"The Miami Fort, situated on the river of the same name, was 
built by the English, in the year 1793, at which time there was 
some reason to imagine that the disputes existing between Great 
Britain and the United States would not have been quite so ami- 
cably settled, perhaps, as they have been; at least that doubtless 
must have been the opinion of government, otherwise they would 
not have given orders for the construction of a fort w T ithin the 
boundary line of the United States, a circumstance which could 
not fail to excite the indignation of the people thereof. General 
Wayne, it w r ould appear, had received no positive orders from his 
government to make himself master of it; could he have gained 
possession of it, however, by a coup-de-main, without incurring 
any loss, he thought that it could not but have been deemed an 
acceptable piece of service by the public, from whom he should 
have received unbounded applause. Yanity was his ruling pas- 
sion, and actuated by it on this occasion, he resolved to try what 
he could do to obtain possession of the fort. Colonel Campbell, 
however, by his spirited and manly answer to the summons that 
was sent, to surrender the fort on account of its being situated 
within the boundary line of the States, soon convinced the Amer- 
ican general that he was not to be shaken by his remonstrances 
or intimidated by his menaces, and that his two hundred men, 
who composed the garrison, had sufficient resolution to resist the 
attacks of his army of three thousand, whenever he thought 
proper to march against the fort. The main division of the 
American army, at this time, lay at the distance of about four 
miles from the fort; a small detachment from it, however, was 
concealed in the woods at a very little distance from the fort, to 
be ready at the call of General Wayue, who, strange to tell, when 
he found he was not likely to get possession of it in consequence 
of the summons he sent, was so imprudent, and departed so much 



204 The Indians Resolve on Peace. 

from the dignity of the general and the charaoter of the soldier, 
as to ride up to the fort, and to use the most gross and illiberal 
language to the British soldiers on duty in it. His object in do- 
ing so was, I should suppose, to provoke the garrison to fire upon 
him, in which case he would have had a pretext for storming the 
fort. 

" Owing to the great prudence, however, of Colonel Campbell, 
who issued the strictest orders to his men and officers to remain 
silent, notwithstanding any insults that were offered to them, and 
not to attempt to fire, unless indeed an actual attack were made 
on the place, Wayne's plan was frustrated, much bloodshed cer- 
tainly saved, and a second war between Great Britain and Amer- 
ica perhaps averted. 

"General Wayne gained no great personal honour by his con- 
duct on this occasion; but the circumstance of his having ap- 
peared before the British fort in the manner he did, operated 
strongly in his favour in respect to his proceedings against the 
Indians. These people had been taught to believe, by the young 
Canadians that were amongst them, that if any part of the Amer- 
ican army appeared before the fort it would certainly be fired 
upon; for they had no idea that the Americans would have come 
in sight of it without taking offensive measures, in which case 
resistance would certainly have been made. When, therefore, it 
was heard that General Wayne had not been fired upon, the In- 
dians complained grievously of their having been deceived, and 
were greatly disheartened on finding that they were to receive no 
assistance from the British. Their native courage, however, did 
not altogether forsake them; they resolved speedily to make a 
stand, and accordingly having chosen their ground, awaited the 
arrival of General Wayne, who followed them closely." 

The Indians now defeated and left without hope from their 
British friends were at the mercy of the Americans, and the 
alternative was peace or starvation, and indeed the latter seemed 
imminent, even with peace, since the destruction of their 
crops. But even under the fatal duress of defeat and the havoc 
of war, the time-honored custom of deliberate councils was not 
departed from, for hasty diplomacy is not one of the weaknesses 
of the Indian, and before they could hold a peace council with the 
Americans, they held a council among themselves at the mouth 

In justification of General Wayne's reputation, it maybe proper to state that, 
under ordinary circumstances h s conduct before the British fort might have 
b^en an excess of military authority, and have justly merited Mr. Welds' cen- 
sure; but the Engli>h, by building the fort on American soil, had subjected 
themselves to tne sport of fortune, by making it necessary for the Americans to 
transcend the ordinary rules of national etiquette, in order to make the most 
of their victory over the Indians. — Author. 



Jay's Mission as Minister to England. 205 

of the Detroit river, and during their deliberations here, Gov. 
Simcoe and other English agents endeavored to dissuade the In- 
dians from making peace with the* Americans. Their eflbrts in 
this direction, however, were in vain, unaccompanied as they were 
by any positive promise of alliance. 

Happily for America, Washington had taken timely steps to 
avert war, having on the 16th of April sent the following mes- 
sage to the Senate: 

" The communications which I have made to you during your 
present session, from the dispatches of our minister in London, 
contain a serious aspect of our affairs with Great Britain. But, 
as peace ought to be pursued with unremitted zeal, before the last 
resource, which has so often been the scourge of nations, and can- 
not fail to check the advanced prosperity of the Unked States, I 
have thought proper to nominate, and do hereby nominate, John 
Jay, envoy extraordinary of the United States to his Britannic 
Majesty. 

" My confidence in our minister plenipotentiary in London con- 
tinues undiminished. But a mission like this, while it corres- 
sponds with the solemnity of the occasion, will announce to the 
world a solicitude for the friendly adjustment of our complaints, 
and a reluctance to hostility. Going immediately from the Uni- 
ted States, such an envoy will carry with him a full knowledge 
of the existing temper and sensibility of our country; and will 
thus be taught to vindicate our rights with firmness, and to cul- 
tivate peace with sincerity. " 

The definitive treaty of peace between England and the United 
States in 1873, had left many important points of national com- 
ity unprovided for, as to those rights which may be called com- 
mon in the family of nations. Our independence had been 
acknowledged, but any influence we might exert abroad made not 
even a ripple in the great sea of European diplomacy, which then 
in the plenitude of its grasp from tw r o rival powers (England and 
France), aimed each to subject the whole world to its influence. 

Under these circumstances, any diplomatic favors from Eng- 
land must necessarily result more from the statesmanship of our 
minister, than from any power behind him, and Washington saw 
and made provision for this contingency when he appointed our 
envoy to England. 

Mr. Jay arrived in London in June, and, says Lyman, the Dip- 
lomatic historian, "There can be no question but a war would 
have taken place if he had not succeeded in making a treaty." 
The instrument was not signed till [the following November, but 
his presence at the Court of Saint James, even before the treaty 
was signed, had inspired that body with due respect for the gov- 
ernment which he so ably represented, and prevented any hasty 



206 Fort Wayne Built 

declaration of war. The treaty was a very lengthy document, 
and only the second article will be quoted, as it only had a direct 
influence on the Northwest: 

" Art. 2. Great Britain to withdraw her troops from certain 
posts within the boundary line of the United States, on or before 
the 1st of June, 1796, &c. Settlers and traders residing in the 
precincts of the posts to be surrendered, to enjoy their property 
unmolested, &c. These settlers not to be compelled to became 
citizens of the United States, or to take the oath of allegiance, 
&c." * 

General "Wayne remained near the battle ground till the 14th 
of the succeeding month, September, when he took up his march 
westwardly to a deserted Miami village, at the confluence of the 
St. Joseph and Saint Mary's rivers. He reached the place on the 
17th, and set his men at work building a fort. It was finished on 
the 22nd and named Ft. Wayne, in honor of the commanding 
general. The christening was solemnized by the firing of fifteen 
rounds of artillery by Col. Hamtramck. This was the nucleus 
around which the city of Ft. Wayne grew into its present pro- 
portions. 

The place had been noted as a portage from the head waters 
of the Wabash to the Miami river, ever since the founding of 
Yincennes, and without doubt as long before that period as the 
time when the country first became inhabited by the Indians, 
during whose occupation of the county, the spot laid in the track 
of their communication between the Wabash Valley and Lake 
Erie. Here General Wayne remained the succeeding winter, 
and was visited by delegations from the Wyandots, Ottawas, 
Chippewas, Pottawattamies, Sacs, Mi am is, Delawares and Shaw- 
anese, all anxious for peace. Arrangements were now made for 
the most important Indian treaty ever held in the west, to be 
convened at Fort Greenville the following June, 1795. 

After the usual preliminaries which always go before the 
business of an Indian council, Little Turtle made the following 
able speech: 

" I wish to ask of you and my brothers present, one question. 
I would be glad to know what lands have been ceded to you, as 
I am uninformed in this particular. I expect that the lands on the 
Wabash, and in this country, belong to me and my people. I 
now take the opportunity to inform my brothers of the United 
States, and others present, that there are men of sense and under- 
standing among my people, as well as among theirs, and that 

* Note. — The reason which the British gave for holding the posts, was to 
secure the payment of private debts contracted before the revolution, due her 
subjects from private individuals in America, alleging, and perhaps with truth, 
that legal obstructions had been thrown in the way of their collection. If this 
was so, such obstructions were removed, as provided in Article 7 in the treaty. 



Little Turtle's Speech in the Peace Council. 207 

these lands were disposed of without our knowledge or consent. 
I was, yesterday, surprised, when I heard from our grandfathers, 
the Delawares, that these lands had been ceded by the British to 
the Americans, when the former were beaten by, and made peace 
with, the latter; because you had before told us that it was the 
Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattamies, and 
Sauckeys, [Sacs,] who had made this cession* 

" I hope you will pay attention to what I now say to you. I 
wish to inform you where your younger brothers, the Miami s, 
live, and, also, the Pottawattamies of St. Joseph's, together with 
the Wabash Indians. You have pointed out to us the boundary 
line between the Indians and the United States, but now I take 
the liberty to inform you that that line cuts off from the Indians 
a large portion of country which has been enjoyed by my fore- 
fathers, time immemoral without molestation or dispute. The 
print of my ancestors' houses are every where to be seen in this 
portion. I was a little astonished at hearing you, and my broth- 
ers who are now present, telling each other what business you had 
transacted together heretofore at Muskingum, concerning this 
country. It is well known by all my brothers present, that my 
forefather kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he ex- 
tended his lines to the headwaters of Scioto; from thence to its 
mouth; from thence, down the Ohio, to the mouth of the Wabash; 
and from thence to Chicago, on lake Michigan; at this place, I 
first saw my elder brothers, the Shawanees. I have now informed 
you of the boundaries of the Miami nation, where the Great 
Spirit placed my forefather a long time ago, and charged him not 
to sell or part with his lands, but to preserve them for his poster- 
ity. This charge has been handed down to me. I was much 
surprised to find that my other brothers differed so much from 
me on this subject: for their conduct would lead one to suppose, 
that the Great Spirit, and their forefathers, had not given them 
the same charge that was given to me. but, on the contrary, had 
directed them to sell their lands to any white man who wore a 
hat, as soon as he should ask it of them. [Now, elder brother, 
your younger brothers, the Miamis, have pointed out to you their 
country, and also to our brothers present. When I hear your 
remarks and proposals on this subject, I will be ready to give 
you an answer. I came with an expectation of hearing you say 
good things, but I have not yet heard what I expected.' 1 * 
To this speech General Wayne himself replied, as follows: 
" Brothers, the Miamis: I have paid attention to what the Lit- 
tle Turtle said two days since, concerning the lands which he 
claims. He said his fathers first kindled the fire at Detroit, and 

*Minutes and procedings of the Treaty of Greenville. 



208 General 'Wayne's Beply. 

stretched his line from thence to the headwaters of Scioto ; thence, 
down the same, to the Ohio; thence, down that river, to the 
month of the Wabash; and from thence to Chicago, on the south- 
west end of lake Michigan, and observed that his forefathers had 
enjoyed that country undisturbed from time immemorial. Broth- 
ers: These boundaries inclose a very large space of country, 
indeed: they embrace, if I mistake not, all the lands on which all 
the nations now present live, as well as those which have been 
ceded to the United States. The lands which have been ceded, 
have, within these three days, been acknowledged by the Ottawas, 
Chippewas, Pottawattamies, Wyandots, Dela wares, and Sbaw- 
anees. The Little Turtle says, the prints of his forefathers' houses 
are everywhere to be seen within these boundaries. Younger 
brother, it is true, these prints are to be observed; but, at the 
same time, we discover the marks of French possessions through- 
out this country, which were established long before we were 
born. These have since been in the occupancy of the British, 
who must, in their turn, relinquish them to the United States, 
when they, the French and Indians, will be all as one people. 
[A white string.] 

" I will point out to you a few places where I discover strong 
traces of these establishments; and, first of all, I find at Detroit 
a very strong print, where the fire was first kindled by your fore- 
fathers: next, at Yincennes, on the Wabash; again at Musquiton, 
on the same river; a little higher up that stream, they are to be 
seen at Ouiatanon. I discover another strong trace at Chicago; 
another on the St. Joseph's of lake Michigan. I have seen dis- 
tinctly the prints of a French and a British post at the Miami 
villages, and of a British post at the foot of the rapids, now in 
their possession; prints, very conspicuous, are on the Great 
Miami, which were possessed by the French forty-five years ago; 
and another trace is very distinctly to be seen at Sandusky. It 
appears to me, that, if the Great Spirit, as yon say, charged your 
forefathers to preserve their lands entire for their posterity, they 
have paid very little regard to the sacred injunction: fori see 
they have parted with those lands to your fathers, the French, and 
the English are now, or have been, in possession of them all; 
therefore, I think the charge urged against the Ottawas, Chippe- 
was, and the other Indians, comes with a bad grace, indeed, from 
the very people who perhaps set them the example. The Eng- 
lish and French both wore hats; and yet your forefathers sold 
them, at various times, portions of your lands. However, as I 
have already observed, you shall now receive from the United 
States further valuable compensation for the lands you have ceded 
to them by former treaties. 

"Younger brothers: I will now inform you who it was who 



Terms of Peace. 209 

gave us these lands, in the first instance. It was your fathers, 
the British, who did not discover that care for your interest which 
you ought to have experienced. This is the treaty of peace, 
made letween the United States of America and Great Britain, 
twelve years ago, at the end of a long and bloody war, when the 
French and Americans proved too powerful for the British. On 
these terms they obtained peace. [Here part of the treaty of 
1783 was read.] Here you perceive that all the country sooth of 
the great lakes has been given up to America; but the United 
States never intended to take that advantage of you which the 
British placed in their hands; they wish you to enjoy your just 
rights, without interruption, and to promote your happiness. The 
British stipulated to surrender to us all the posts on their side of 
the boundary agreed on. I told you, some days ago, that treaties 
should ever be sacredly fulfilled by those who make them; but 
the British, on their part, did not find it convenient to relinquish 
those posts as soon as they should have done; however, they now 
find it so, and a precise period is accordingly fixed for their deliv- 
ery. I have now in my hand the copy of a treaty, made eight 
months since, between them and us, of which 1 will read you a 
little. [First and second articles of Mr. Jay's treaty read.] By 
this solemn agreement, they promise to retire from Michilimaci- 
nac, Fort St. Clair, Detroit, Niagara, and all other places on this 
side of the lakes, in ten moons from this period, and leave the 
same to full and quiet possession of the United States. 

After much deliberation the treaty was concluded on the fol- 
lowing basis as to giving up Indianlands: 

Art. 3. The general boundary line between the land of the 
United States, and the lands of the said Indian tribes, shall begin 
at the mouth of Cuyahoga river, and run thence up the same to 
the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Mus- 
kingum; thence down that branch to the crossing place above 
Fort Lawrence; thence westwardly, to a fork of that branch 
of the Great Miami river running into the Ohio, at or near 
which fork stood Laramie's store, and where commences the 
portage between the Miami of the Ohio and St. Mary's river, 
which is a branch of the Miami which runs into Lake Erie; 
thence a westerly course to Fort Kecovery, which stands 
on a branch of the Wabash; thence southwesterly, in a direct 
line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth 
of Kentucky or Outtawa river. The said Indian tribes do also 
cede to the United States the following pieces of land, to wit: 

1. One piece of land six miles square, at or near Laramie's 
store, before mentioned. 2. One piece, two miles square, at 
the head of the navigable water or landing, on the St. Mary's 
river, near Girty's town. 3. One piece, six miles square, at the 



210 Terms of Peace. 

head of the navigable waters of the Auglaize river. 4. One 
piece, six miles square, at the confluence of the Auglaize and 
Miami river, where Fort Defiance now stands. 5. One piece, 
six miles square, at or near the confluence of the rivers St. Mary 
and St. Joseph, where Fort Wayne now stands, or near it. 6. 
One piece, two- miles square, on the Wabash river, at the end of 
the portage from the Miami of the lake, and about eight miles 
westward from Fort Wayne. 7. One piece, six miles square, 
at the Oaatanon, or Old Weatowns, on the Wabash river. 8. 
One piece, twelve miles square, at the British Fort, on the 
Miami of the lake, at the foot of the rapids. 9. One piece, 
six miles square, at the mouth of the said river, where it 
empties into the lake. 10. One piece, six miles square, 
upon Sandusky lake where a fort formerly stood. 11. One 
piece two miles square, at the lower rapids of Sandus- 
ky river. 12. The post of Detroit, and all the lands 
to the north, the west, and the south of it, of which the 
Indian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the 
French or English governments; and so much more land to be 
annexed to the District of Detroit as shall be comprehended be- 
tween the Raisin on the south and Lake St. Clair on the north, 
and a line, the general course whereof shall be six miles distant 
from the west end of lake Erie and Detroit river. 1 3. The post 
of Michilimackinac, and all the land adjacent of which the In- 
dian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the French 
or English governments; and a piece of land on the Main to the 
north of the Island, to measure six miles on lake Huron, or the 
straits between lakes Huron and Michigan, and to extend three 
miles back from the water on the lake or strait; and also the 
Island de Bois Blanc, being an extra and voluntary gift of the 
Chippewa nation. 14. One piece of land, six miles square, at 
the mouth of Chicago river, emptying into the southwest end of 
lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood. 15. One piece, 
twelve miles square, at or near the mouth of the Illinois river, 
emptying into the Mississippi. 16. One piece, six miles square, 
at the old Peorias, fort and village, near the south end of the 
Illinois lake on said Illinois river. And for the same considera- 
tions, and with the same views as above mentioned, the United 
States now deliver to the said Indian tribes a quantity of goods 
to the value of twenty thousand dollars, the receipt whereof they 
do hereby acknowledge; and henceforward every year forever, the 
United States will deliver, at some convenient place northward of 
the river Ohio, like useful goods, suited to the circumstances of the 
Indians of the value of nine thousand five hundred dollars, reck- 
oning that value at the first cost of the goods in the city or place 
in the United States where they shall be procured. 




Little-Turtle Visits Philadelphia. 211 

The treaty was signed, Aug. 3d, 1795, and hushed the wilder- 
ness to peace, till the great events in which the Continental wars 
of Europe had developed issues which were felt even on the fron- 
tiers of America, and had much to do in again entangling the 
Indians in an issue between themselves and the Americans, as 
will be told in future chapters. 

After the treaty, Little Turtle did all in his power to induce 
his people to adopt the modes of the white man, and with this 
end in view, visited Philadelphia to solicit Congress and the 
benevolent Society of Friends to assist him in this laudable 
undertaking. Here he had an introduction to the celebrated 
French travellers, Volney and Koskiuosko, which is described as 
follows by Drake: 

"At the time of Mr. Volney* & interview with him for infor- 
mation, he took no notice of the conversation while the inter- 
preter was communicating with Mr. Volney * for he did not 
understand English, but walked abomt, plucking out his beard 
and eye-brows. He was dressed now in English clothes. His 
skin, where not exposed, Mr. Volney says, was as white as his; 
and on speaking upon the subject, Little-turtle said, u I have 
seen Spaniards in Louisiana, and found no difference of color 
between them and me. And why should there be any? In 
them, as in us, it is the work of the Father of colors, the Suji, 
that burns us. You white people compare the color of your 
face with that of your bodies." Mr. Volney explained to him 
the notion of many, that his race was descended from the Tar- 
tars, and by a map showed him the supposed communication 
between Asia and America. To this LJttlc-turtle replied, k ' Why 
should not these Tartars, who resemble us, have come from 
America? Are there any reasons to the contrary? Or why 
should we not both have been born in our own country? " It is 
a fact that the Indians give themselves a name which is equiva- 
lent to our word indigene, that is, one sprung from the soil, or 
natural to it.* 

"When Mr. Volney asked Little-turtle what prevented him 
from living among the whites, and if he were not more comfort- 
able in Philadelphia than upon the banks of the Wabash, he said, 
" Taking all things together, you, have the advantage over 
us; but here 1 am deaf and dumb. I do not talk your lan- 
guage; I can neither hear, nor make myself heard. When 
L waAk through the streets, J. see every person in his shop 
employed about something: one makes shoes, another hats, a 
third sells cloth, and every one lives by his labor. I say to 
myself, Which of these things can you do? Not one. I can 
make a boio or an arrow, catch fish, kill game, and go to 

* See Volney's Travels, ut supra. 



212 The English Evacuate the Western Ports. 

war: hut none of these is of any use here. To learn what is 
done here would require a long time." " Old age conies on." 
" 1 should he a piece of furniture useless to my nation, useless 
to the whites, and useless to myself." " I must return to my 
own country? " 

" At the same time (1797), among other eminent personages to 
whom this chief became attached in Philadelphia, was the re- 
nouned Koshiuslco. This old Polish chief was so well pleased 
with Little-turtle, that when the latter went to take his final 
leave of him, the old ' war-worn soldier ' and patriot presented 
him with a beautiful pair of pistols, and an elegant robe made of 
sea-otter's skin, of the value of ' several' hundred dollars.* 

After this successful issue of General Wayne's campaign, Spain 
made a treaty with the United States, dated March 3d, 1796, in 
which the free navigation of the Mississippi was guaranteed to 
the Americans, but she was very tardy in the fulfillment of its 
stipulations. 

At that time there were strong Spanish forts at Natchez and 
Yicksburg, then called Walnut Hills, and although the treaty 
bound her to give them up, she still held possession of them, 
greatly to the perplexity of the Americans. Meantime this faith- 
less government continued her intriguing with the Western peo- 
ple to induce them to set up a government for themselves inde- 
pendent of the union; and as an incentive, sent a Mr. Powers as 
a secret agent among them, with instructions to offer them the 
free navigation of the Mississippi, besides a hundred thousand 
dollars in cash.f 

No substantial encouragement was given to this scheme, and 
on the 5th of October, 1798, Spain reluctantly retired from the 
posts she had unjustly held on the east bank of the Mississippi, 
and American vessels could now pass to the sea unmolested. In 
July, 1796, the British evacuated all the posts which they held on 
American soil in the West. Detroit, the most important of 
them all, was immediately taken possession of by a detachment 
under Captain Porter. On retiring from the post, the British, 

* " Little-turtle died in the spring of 1812, at his residence, but a short time 
before the declaration of war against England by the U. States. His portrait, 
by Stewart, graces the walls of the war-office of our nation. The following 
notice appeared in the public prints at the time of his death: ' Fort Wayne. 21 
July, 1812. On the 14 inst. the celebrated Miami chief, the Little-turtle, died 
at this place, at the age of 65 years. Perhaps there is not left on this conti- 
nent one of his color so distinguished in council and in war. His disorder was 
the gout. He died in a camn, because he chose to be in the open air. He met 
death with great firmness. The agent for Indian affairs had him buried with 
the honors of war, and other marks of distinction suited to his character.' " 

f State Papers, Vol. II, j>. 103. 



The Connecticut Land Company. 213 

regardless of the courtesies for which they are generally exem- 
plary, acted the part of a malicious tenant on leaving a house. 

The wells of the fort were filled with stones, the windows of 
the fort broken, the gates locked, and the keys left in the custody 
of an aged lS"egro,* who, with fidelity to his trust, promptly gave 
them to the Americans, and the old fort passed out of the hands 
of its tenacious occupants, with its glorious memories giving 
place to painful regrets, as they took their departure down the 
clear waters of the Straits, bidding good-bye to their dusky 
friends, who had so many years hung around the place in hope 
of alliance against the aggressive Americans. 

The State of Connecticut, in 1795, disposed of a portion of 
the Western Reserve to a company known by the title of the 
Connecticut Land Company, of which Moses Cleavelandf was 
one of the directors. The next year, he with a party of survey- 
ors started for the new country in April. Their route was chosen 
through Albany, thence to Oswego. Here they arrived the 3d 
of June, a month before the British had evacuated the Western 
posts, and these punctilious sentinels still guarded Oswego with 
the watchfulness of picket-men o i the eve of a battle. The par- 
ty, therefore, durst not pass the British fort at the mouth of the 
Oswego river without permission, lest the commander should 
give their batteaux a cannon-shot as they paddled past its frown- 
ing battlements. On being asked permission to do this, with 
dogged resolution the British commander refused it, and the 
American party were obliged to carry their batteaux circuitously 
around the fort by land, and launch them below the British fort, 
beyond the reach of their guns. Thence, coasting along the 
southern shore of Lake Ontario, they arrived at Buffalo, where 
they remained several days, to hold a council with the Seneca and 
Mohawk chiefs, for the purpose of purchasing any interest they 
might claim in the lands composing such portions of the West- 
ern Reserve as the Connecticut Land Company had purchased.;}; 

The celebrated Brant and Red Jacket were the principal depu- 
ties on the part of the Indians. These able men saw with regrets 
the inevitable downfall of their power, and all they could do was 
to make provision for the creature comforts of their tribes, while 
they yet had a being. After several days spent in parleying, 

*Lanman , s Mich., p. 167. 

fHis name was spelled with an "a" in the first syllable. 

X Note. — The original home of the Mohawks and Senecas was in Eastern New 
York, but they had extended their dominions into Ohio by right of conquest. 
But at the treaty of Greenville, when these lands were ceded to the United 
States by the Western tribes, the Mohawks and Senecas were not present; 
hence the necessity to confer with them to prevent any future trouble as to the 
validity to these titles. 



214 Red Jacket's Caustic Speech. 

twenty -five hundred dollars worth of goods were accepted as pay 
for their interest in the lands, the land on which the present city 
of Cleveland now stands being included in the tract. This offer 
was accepted, not without some bitter reproaches on the part of 
Red Jacket, w T ho said: 

"You white people make a great parade about religion; you 
say you have a book of laws and rules which was given you by 
the Great Spirit, but is this true? Was it written by his own 
hand and given to you? No, it was written by your own people. 
They do it to deceive you. Their whole wishes center here 
(pointing to his pocket); all they want is the money. (It hap- 
pened there was a priest in the room at the same time who heard 
him.) He says white people tell them, they wish to come and live 
among them as brothers, and learn them agriculture. So they 
bring on implements of husbandry and presents, tell them good 
stories, and all appears honest, but when they are gone all 
appears as a dream. Our land is taken from us.^and still we 
don't know how to farm it." 

Having successfully executed this important business, the 
party embarked on lake Erie for their destination. This was the 
first introduction of the New-Englanders to the waters of the lakes 
for the purposes of permanent settlement. For more than a cen- 
tury the French had been here, and for the past thirty years the 
English had held the shores of these waters exclusively to them- 
selves. Now the rising star of a new power, in the twentieth 
year of its existence, had penetrated across the wilderness of 
New York, and was about to lay the dimension-stone for the ci'y 
of Cleveland, on a model destined soon to be repeated with suc- 
cess at other places along the margin of these shining waters. 
On the 2nd of July the party arrived at Erie, which still retained 
the old French name of Presque Isle. Here the ruins of the old 
French fort still remained, as a frail memorial of French ambi- 
tion crushed by the strong arm of England, who in turn had held 
but a transient lease of power. Passing on to the west, they 
arrived at Conneaut on the 4th of July. Here they celebrated 
the day with suitable toasts, and, says the Journal of Cleaveland, 
u drank several pails of grog, supped, and retired in remarkable 
good order." 

The party now began to lay out the country in townships, 
according to the admirable system of government surveys begun 
on the Ohio river in 1785. 

On the 10 th of August, having run a line around a large tract, 
they came back to lake Erie again. Their provisions were 
exhausted, and from the following item in Cleaveland's journal, 
their rum had come to its last gill. Says the record: " Just as 
we were starting for Conneaut, we saw a large party coming along 



Cleveland Settled. 215 

the beach, and supposing them to be Indians, and having only a 
gill left in our bottle, we were hurrying to a spring to drink it 
before they could come up and tease us for it, but to our astonish- 
ment, we found them to be two of the parties of surveyors com- 
ing in together." 

While the surveyors were at work, Mr. Cleaveland made an 
excursion to the site destined to become the city which was to 
bear his name, arriving there on the 22nd of August. Says 
Whittlesey, in his History of Cleveland: 

" As they coasted close along the shore, overhung by a dense 
green forest, mirrored in the waters over which they were pass- 
ing, the mouth of the river disclosed itself, as a small opening, 
between low banks of sand. The man who controls the party is 
seated in the stern, steering his own craft, which is gracefully 
headed into the stream. 

" His complexion was so swarthy, his figure so square and 
stout, and his dress so rude, that the Indians supposed some of 
the blood of their race had crept into his veins." 

" A young growth of oaks, with low bushy tops, covered the 
ground. Beneath them were thrifty bushes, rooted in a lean, but 
dry and pleasent soil, highly favorable to the object in view. A 
smooth and even field sloped gently towards the lake, whose blue 
waters could be seen extending to the horizon. His imagination 
doubtless took a pardonable flight into the future, when a great 
commercial town should take the place of the stinted forest 
growth, which the northern tempests had nearly destroyed." 

" Enough men were left to put up a storehouse for the sup- 
plies, and a cabin for the accommodation of the surveyors." 

" Houses had before this been built by white people, near the 
mouth of the river; but not for the purpose of permanent settle- 
ment. Col. James Hill man avers that he put up a small cabin 
on the east side of the river, in 1786, near the foot of Superior 
street, of which, however, nothing further is known. Sometime 
previous to 1787, a party who were wrecked upon a British ves- 
sel, between one and two miles east of the river, built an hut, 
large enough to shelter themselves through one winter. On the 
west side of the river a log store house was erected, prior to 1786, 
to protect the flour which was brought here from Pittsburg, on 
the way to Detroit. This building, in a dilapidated state, was 
standing in 1797, when it was occupied awhile by James Kings- 
bury and his family." 

Surveys for the streets of the new city were made in a few 
weeks, the first plat bearing date of October 1st, 1796. It was 
the first town laid out exclusively by New England citizens on 
the entire chain of lakes, and at this clay is second in commercial 
importance only to Chicago. 



216 Hut Built at Chicago. 

The same summer, a colored man from St. Domingo, named 
Jean Baptiste Pont Au Sable, in his forest wanderings, was 
attracted to the old portage of Chicago. Here he built a hut on 
the north bank of the main branch of the Chicago river, and set- 
tled among the Pottowattomies, who then dwelt at the place. 
Without doubt he was well received by them, as he soon aspired 
to the dignity of a chief, but like many others before and since, 
his ambitious aims were never to be realized. Thus baulked, he 
relinquished the improvements he had made and removed to 
Peoria.* 

The small beginning he had made, however, was soon appro- 
priated by a Frenchman named La Mai, who appears to have 
been only a transient occupant, like many others of his country- 
men before him, and the only mark which gives significance to 
his brief residence here, is the fact that he sold out his establish- 
ment to one who became the true pioneer of Chicago as an Amer- 
ican city. This was John Kinzie, whose romantic adventures 
incarnate with the spirit of forest life as it then was in its fasci- 
nations will be told in future pages. 

And now the old century fades away in a peaceful twilight, 
burying in oblivion the crushed hopes of France and England, 
while the American star is rising above the dip of the horizon. 

*Waburn, P. 490. 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

William Henry Harrison; His Ancestry and Birth — Is Ap- 
pointed Governor of the Indian Territory — Spanish Posses- 
sion of louisiana — Napoleon's Ambitious Designs Shown 
by the Conquest of St. Domingo, and by the Purchase of lou- 
isiana from Spain — French Designs Frustrated by the En- 
glish — Purchase of Louisiana by the United States — Conse- 
quent Necessity of a Fort on the Upper Lakes — St. Joseph 
Chosen for its Locality — The Indians Object to its Erection 
— Chicago Next Selected — The Fort Built Here — Margaret 
and Elizabeth, the Captives — Their Adventures, and what 
grew out of Them — John Kinzie — His Youthful Life — He 
Settles in Chicago — Tfe Fur Trade and the Engage. 

Private ownership to the soil is a condition peculiar to new 
countries. It may almost be called one of the modern inventions 
of civilization, first brought to perfection in America. The effect 
Of this distribution of nature's most valuable gift, has been mani- 
fest in school houses, libraries, newspapers, magazines, pictures 
and well furnished habitations, universallv brought into being 
where men own the soil they cultivate. The nineteenth century 
opened upon the people of the United States with a new field, on 
which these good things were to be multiplied in extent beyond 
limit, as far as could then be seen. The unmeasured fields 
beyond the Ohio — enriched by a thousand autumnal dressings of 
leaf-mould, or the decay of prairie growth — looked inviting to the 
husbandmen of New England and Old Virginia, and emigra- 
tion from these places began again after assurance of peace with 
the Indians. 

A character is now introduced into history — one of those master- 
spirits who can only live and grow in a new country. Not that 
men thus reared are consequently superior to the cultured men 
of old communities in all things, but that they exceed them in 
economizing effective force from apparently humble sources; in 
bringing about large results from small beginnings, and in the 
adaptation of ways and means to ends, cannot be denied. Such 
a man was "William Henry Harrison, whose name deserves a 

(217) 



2 IS Harmon Apj>oi?ited Governor of Indiana Territory. 

place with a long list of illustrious Americans, who, like himself, 
grew into distinction from the toils of camp life in the forest. 

He was born in Berkley, Virginia, in 1773. His ancestors 
had made themselves conspicuous in the Cromwellian wars 
in England, and his father was one of the signers of the 
Declaration of American Independence, and after it was achieved 
became governor of Yirginia. "William Henry was the young- 
est son. When Governor St. Clair was gathering his forces 
to invade the Indian country, he had an earnest desire to partici- 
pate in the campaign, and for that purpose applied to General 
Washington, then President. He received an ensign's commis- 
sion and started for Fort Washington. He arrived too late to 
take part in the ill-fated expedition of St. Clair, but joined Gen. 
Wayne in his successful campaign which succeeded it. After 
the treaty of Greenville, which restored peace to the forest, he was 
placed in command of Fort Washington, and shortly afterward 
married the daughter of Judge Symes, the same who was the 
proprietor of Symes Purchase, spoken of in a preceeding chapter. 
His ambition soon took a higher range than to command a small 
squad of dissolute soldiers in a peaceful fort, and he resigned his 
commission as captain, and was soon appointed secretary of the 
Northwest Territory, and in 1792 was elected delegate to Congress 
— he being the first to represent the interests of the northwest at 
Washington. On the 13th of May, 1800, he was appointed gov- 
ernor of the Territory of Indiana, which had been set off from 
the Northwest Territory. Its area included the present states of 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The 
seat of government- was fixed at Vincennes, on the Wabash river. 

The number of inhabitants of the Indiana Territory was 5,641 
whites, while that of the Ohio division of the Northwest Terri- 
tory was 45,365.* The number of Indians inhabiting the Indi- 
ana Territory was more than three times that of the whites. They 
had all tasted the fruits of war with their white neighbors, but 
being still in quiet possession of their hunting-grounds, felt a 
happy assurance that they and their offspring should forever con- 
tinue to occupy the limitless forests of the country, which then, 
from their vast extent, seemed to bid perpetual defiance to white 
settlements. 

The Northwest was now organized into two territories, possess- 
ing only the germs of her ultimate grandeur, and these were not 
within the reach of human vision to forecast. Spain held the 
whole west side of the Mississippi, and such portions of the 
eastern side as came within the limits of the present State of 
Louisiana, which included the port of New Orleans. Besides 

*Carey ; s Atlas, published in Philadelphia, 1801. 



The Purchase of Louisiana. 219 

tliis menacing power at the back door of the United States, which 
must shackle the prosperity of the JSTorthwest as long as it lasted, 
our relations with England were of a slipshod character, from the 
fact that her colonial ports were not open to our commerce, which 
forced us to trade with an important part of the world through 
English merchants. But as good fortune for the United States 
would have it, Spain was showing evident signs of decrepitude, 
soon to be made manifest by her relinquishment to France of her 
entire possessions of Louisiana. 

This she had already done at the treaty of St. Ildefonso, on the 
first of October, 1800. Through some subtle diplomacy this 
cession was kept a secret till at the treaty of Amiens, which 
hushed Europe to a treacherous peace, it was published. The 
rising star of Napoleon was then mounting the horizon of France, 
and she looked forward to the day when her former greatness in 
America might be restored. On the part of the United States 
grave apprehensions arose that the new owners of the soil would 
close the navigation of the Mississippi against them, and build 
up a nation on its western bank, which might prove a dangerous 
rival by securing the entire commerce of the gulf. At this time 
Napoleon sent an army to invade St. Domingo, which strength- 
ened this theory in the minds of the Americans. Success at first 
attended the expedition, but soon afterwards the slaves arose and 
drove the invaders from the island. Meantime England was 
forming fresh combinations against him, and war broke out again 
between that power and France in the following May. The 
defeat of his army in St. Domingo, and the supremacy of the 
English marine, now made Louisiana an uncertain possession, 
and French hopes of aggrandizement on the soil of America 
were suddenly dashed to the ground. Up to this time no thoughts 
had ever been entertained in the United States of purchasing 
Louisiana. On the contrary, this immense country had ever 
been a mountain in the path of western progress, commanding 
as it did their only avenue wherewith to ship their exports to 
foreign countries. Now the commotion which prevailed in 
Europe by the chance direction affairs had taken, had ripened 
this fruit for an American sickle, and America purchased it for a 
little over fifteen million dollars. The treaty of cession was rati- 
fied by Congress on the 21st of October, 1803.* 

While the negotiations were in progress, the British minister, 
in his heated zeal to inflict a wound on France, made a proposi- 

*The purchase had been made on the 30th of April previous by Robert R. Liv- 
ingston, then our resident Minister in Paris, and Mr. Moore, who had just been 
sent there by the Executive on a special mission. The few months that France 
had helcl the country, showed the impossibility of any European power's at- 
tempt to acquire any American soil that laid in the path of Americon progress. 



220 Commission to Locate a Fort on Lake Michigan. 

tion to Eufus King, our envoy to London, to conquer the said 
country from France and cede it to the United States after peace 
had been made with that power. This proposition was not seri- 
ously entertained by American statesmen, who had too much pen- 
etration to submit so important a matter to the fortune of war or 
the caprices of a foreign cabinet. When the sale was made, said 
]S"apoleon, in the bitterness of thwarted ambition: " I have given 
to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her 
pride." Spain made a feeble and unavailing protest against the 
transfer, lest she should ultimately lose Florida and Mexico by 
its contagious example, both of which events have since been ver- 
ified. This augmentation to the territory of the United States 
brought increased responsibilities, and demanded preparations 
wherewith to utilize it. The British influence among the count- 
less Indian warriors along the upper lakes had been gathering 
strength by means of half-civilized courtesies, adapted to their 
tastes, ever since the days of the Revolution; and a demonstra- 
tion of American power to offset this influence, was necessary to 
guarantee safety to the frontier settlements already made, as well 
as to bring the northern portions of Louisiana at least within 
hailing distance of its new owners. Already the project of build- 
ing a fort at the southern extremity of lake Michigan had been 
entertained by Congress, while negotiations for the purchase of 
Louisiana was pending, but now its immediate necessity was 
apparent, and commissioners were promptly sent from Washing- 
ton to select a suitable place for it. 

The mouth of the St. Joseph river, on the east bank of lake 
Michigan, was first selected, and preparations made to build the 
fort, when the Indians of the country withheld their consent for 
its construction, and the commissioners were obliged to select 
another place, as they had no power to enforce their demands — 
the Indian title here never having been extinguished. Across 
the lake was the portage of Chicago, where six miles square had 
been ceded to the United States by the Indians in the treaty oi 
Greenville, in 1795. It was a bold push into the interior to es- 
tablish a fort here, but there was no other available spot, and 
orders for its construction were issued from the War Department 
early in the summer of 1803. Detroit and Michilimacinac were 

*Tbat some fortuitious contingency might possibly yet give Louisiana to the 
English, was probably the intention of the British Minister in making this pro- 
position to Mr. King. This theory is strengthened by a letter that a British 
officer high in rank had previously written to the Board of Trade, from which 
the following is an extract : " Should the Americans thus once fairly possess 
themselves of that colony, it will be very difficult to dislodge them, and from 
the time they establish a footing in any port in the Gulf of Florida the inter- 
course between the p]uropean nations and the West Indies will be very insecure 
indeed." 




fc«'l§ : •' 



Fort Built at Chicago. 221 

then the extreme western outposts of the Americans along the 
Jakes. A company of United States soldiers was stationd at the 
former place, under command of Capt. John Whistler, an officer 
of the Revolution, and to him was entrusted this service. Under 
his command were two young lieutenants — William Whistler, 
his oldest son, and James S. Swearington, from Chillicothe, Ohio. 
To the latter he gave orders to conduct the soldiers across the 
forests of Michigan to Chicago, while he and his wife, his son 
William and his wife — a young bride — took passage on the U. S. 
schooner Tracy for the same destination, there to set up the Amer- 
ican standard at a spot venerable with the memories of one hun- 
dred and thirty years of transient Trench occupation, though 
now inhabited by only three rude huts of French fur-traders, each 
with their usual adjuncts — the Indian wife and the inevitable 
brood of half-breed sprites. 

The schooner arrived on the Fourth of July and anchored out- 
side the bar, for the mouth of the river was choked with a sand 
drift. Here she discharged her freight of ammunition, arms 
and provisions into small boats, in which they were rowed into 
the river and landed on the spot where the fort was to be built. 
Two thousand Indians were assembled, who, with many a grunt 
of surprise and approbation, beheld these preparations so fatal to 
their security. 

The schooner was the especial object of their admiration. 
They called it the big canoe with wings. After the freight and 
passengers were landed, Capt. Tracy, the commander, gave or- 
ders to set sail for Detroit, and the ship soon vanished into the 
distant dip of the sky and left the new-comers among their swar- 
thy associates, cut off from the outside world. Their first busi- 
ness was to build the block house — an easy task but for the 
hauling of the logs to the ground selected for its site. They had 
neither oxen or horses with which to do this, but the soldiers 
geared themselves with ropes, and performed the onerous toil. 

The summer and autumn of 1803 were spent before the fort 
was finished, but comfortable quarters were secured for the gar- 
ison before cold weather had commenced. The defenses con- 
sisted of two block houses, one on the southeast and the other on 
the northwest corner of the grounds enclosed. These were large 
enough for a parade ground, and were surrounded by a substan- 
tial palisade. A sallyport connected the enclosure with the river 
by means of a subterranean passage. Immediately north of the 
fort, the main branch of the Chicago river rolled its quiet waters 
to the lake, and on the west, half a mile of wet prairie intervened 
between the fort and the south branch of the Chicago river. On 
the east were the shifting sand-drifts through which the river 
found its way to the lake by a detour southwardly along the shore 



222 Armament and Garrison of the Fort. 

half a mile south of its present outlet. Three pieces of light 
artillery and small arms constituted the armament. Attached to 
the fort was a two-story log building, sided with clap-boards, riven 
from logs like barrel staves. This was called the United States 
factory, which meant a place to store goods belonging to the gov- 
ernment designed for gratuitous distribution among the Indians. 
It stood outside of the palisade to the west, and was under the 
charge of an agent who was sutler to the fort, and was subject to 
the orders of its commander. The garrison of the fort consisted 
of 1 captain, 1 second lieutenant, 1 ensign, 4 sergeants, 1 surgeon 
and 54 privates.* 

Says Hon. Zebina Eastman, in his history of Chicago: "This 
fort then occupied one of the most beautiful sites on the lake 
shore. It was as high as any other point, everlooking the sur- 
face of the lake; commanding as well as any other view on this 
flat surface could; the prairie extending to the south to the belt 
of timber along the south brancli and on the north side, and the 
white sand hills both to the north and south, which had for 
ages past been the sport of the lake winds." 

This lonesome hermitage soon became a nucleus around which 
the restive spirits which forest life had brought into being, gath- 
ered, not to enrich themselves and live in luxurious ease, but to 
follow the bent of an ambition that led their way into an 
untroden path. 

What matter if dangers lurked beside it ? These were so 
many stimulants to variegate the path of life and give point to 
its smoother surface by contrast with its rougher. Daring and 
muscle then held a high place in frontier accomplishments. 
They were necessary in order to push the American "idea" far 
into the forest in advance, to pave the way for other graces 
which were some day to follow. 

Demand begets supply in every essential want of humanity; 
and when pioneers are wanted to face danger, plenty are willing 
to enlist under an assurance that they will be fully renumerated 
on the spot by that immunity from restraint which the forest 
secures to its tenants, and by that dashing style of good fellow- 
ship which is ever present between themselves and their com- 
rades. "Whatever may be the rough exterior of such men, they 
are heroes in the estimation of even the most cultured leaders of 
society, and even the prude regards them with charity, and ac- 
cepts even their eccentricies without censure. Chicago was un- 
like Boston, which was settled by Winthrop and the Puritans. 
She (Chicago) began under the naive elements of frontier life, 
and after many } r ears graduated under the influence of the seed 

♦American State Papers, Vol. I, p. 175, 176. 



Margaret and Elizabeth. 223 

they (the Puritans) planted on the eastern fringe of the conti- 
nent, somewhat modified however in its march across the inter- 
vening country). 

Among the venturesome pioneers of Virginia, was a back- 
woodsman named McKenzie. He, with a number of his com- 
rades settled at the mouth of Wolf's creek, where it empties into 
the Kanawha, in Giles county. 

During Dunmore's war on the frontier, the Shawanese, then 
the great formidable power of the forest, in one of their border 
forays came suddenly upon the home of McKenzie, killed his 
wife, and led two of his children into captivity. The names of 
the young captives were Margaret, ten years old, and Elizabeth, 
eight years old. They were taken to old Chillicothe, the 
great Indian town of the Shawanese, where they were adopted 
into the family of a high-bred Indian chief, and raised under the 
tender care of his obedient squaw, according to custom. Ten 
years later, when the girls were in the full bloom of maidenly 
beauty, Margaret was allowed to accompany her foster lather on 
a hunting excursion to the Saint Mary's river, in the present 
State of Indiana, near Ft. Wayne, under the especial care of a 
matronly squaw who was one of the party. Arriving at the 
place, a young chief of the same tribe became enamored by the 
graces and accomplishments of the young captive. But Marga- 
ret, who retained vivid memories of her youth, with all the 
tender associations that clustered around the hearthstone of civ- 
ilization, recoiled from the savage attentions of her swarthy 
lover, and determined not to yield her heart to one who had no 
higher destiny for her than to ornament his leggins with porcu- 
pine quills, as one of the highest accomplishments of which a 
squaw was capable. Whatever else may be the gifts of an 
Indian, he knows not how to play the rejected lover with the 
manly graces by which the impassioned young civilian gently 
tones up the affections of his hesitating fair, and he (the Indian) 
attempts by force what he cannot win by grace. Margaret's 
audacious lover was no exception to this rule, and at midnight 
approached the camp, where she was sleeping, intending to force 
her to become his wife. According to the Indian custom a din 
of yells and the rattle of an Indian drum announced the inten- 
tions of the would-be bridegroom to the terrified victim. 

Aroused to a full sense of danger, the heroine leaped from her 
couch and fled into the glooms of the forest for a protection that 
her friends could no longer give her. Fortunately her dog fol- 
lowed her as she fled down the bank of the St. Mary's river to 
the stockade, half a mile distant, where the horses were kept. 
Ere she reached the place, the footsteps of her detestable lover 
were heard close behind. She turned, set her dog upon him, 



224 Early Life of John Kinzie. 

and while the noble animal was grappling with the wretch, she 
reached the stockade, unhitched a horse, leaped on his back, and 
took flight through the wilderness, seven ty-iive miles to her In- , 
dian home at Chillicothe. 'The fate of the faithful dog was never 
known, but he was probably killed while fighting in defense of 
his mistress. The horse died the next day after he had performed 
so wonderful a feat, without rest or sustenance. This heroic girl 
and her sister Elizabeth, afterwards became the mothers of some 
of the first pioneers of Chicago. 

In the eventful year of 1763 was born at Quebec a boy, des- 
tined not only to participate in the romantic riot of forest life as 
it then was in the great interior, bat to fix his name on the page 
of history, with the honorable distinction as the Father of Chi- 
cago. This was John Kinzie. His father died in his infancy, 
and his mother married a Mr. Forsyth, and removed to "New 
York. At the age of tenor twelve John determined to go back to 
his native place, and armed with this resolution, went aboard a 
sloop ready to sail for Albany. The bark was under way before 
the young truant was missed from the nursery. The poor mother 
had lost a former child by her first husband, the remains of whom 
had been picked up in the woods of Canada, lost and starved to 
death, and now her heart bled afresh for what she supposed to be 
the awful fate of Johnny. Fortune, however, had ordered it 
otherwise. The lad made the acquaintance, on board the sloop, 
of a gentleman going to Quebec, who paid his fare, and landed 
him safely at the place. Here the young adventurer soon got 
employment as an apprentice to a silversmith,* and won his way 
to distinction among the restive spirits of his eventful age, and 
next we find him a fur-trader in Detroit during the English occu- 
pation of the place. After the adventure of Margaret, the cap- 
tive, as just told, she, with her sister Elizabeth, were taken to 
this place by their foster-father, who felt proud of his adopted 
children, and here they became acquainted with John Kinzie. It 
is not strange that the brilliant young adventurer beheld the 
beautiful captive Margaret with the eye of a lover, nor that the 
heroine felt a similar sentiment for him, and they were soon mar- 
ried. Elizabeth at the same time met a Scotchman named Clark, 
and married him, and their swarthy foster-parent took his path 
back to Chillicothe alone. The two young couples lived in De- 
troit about five years, during which time Margaret had three 
children, William, James and Elizabeth, and Elizabeth had two 
children, John K. and Elizabeth. 

The treaty of Greenville, in 1795, having restored peace to the 
border, Mr. Isaac McKenzie, the father from whom the captives 

* Wabun, p. 193. 



The Clyboum Family. 225 

had been taken almost a quarter of a century before, received 
tidings of his children, and went to Detroit to see them. As 
might be supposed, the sight aroused tender emotions that had 
slumbered for years in painful suspense. Xor were the hearts of 
the children less moved at the sight of their aged parent, whose 
memory I 1 ad never been obliterated, even during their savage 
training in the tumult of an Indian camp. Under this strong 
pressure of filial devotion the two mothers, with their children, 
returned with their father to the old home, to which arrange- 
ment both of their husbands consented. A final separation was 
not intended, but time and distance divorced them forever. Mr. 
Kinzie afterwards removed to Saint Josephs, where he married a 
Mrs. McKillip, the widow of a British officer. Margaret mar- 
ried Mr. Benjamin Hall, of Virginia, and Elizabeth married Mr. 
Jonas Clybourn, of the same place. David, the oldest son of 
Benjamin Hall and Margaret, made a journey to Chicago in 1S22, 
where he remained three years. Here a wilderness of shining 
waters, as the upper lakes then were, nestled amidst an unlimited 
wilderness of woodland and prairie teeming with fertility hidden 
beneath a forest studded with overgrown trees, or a prairie ornate 
with tall grasses and thrifty shrubbery. On his return to Vir- 
ginia, his nattering account of the place and its future destiny, 
which he foreshadowed with a truthful forecast, induced a num- 
ber of persons to emigrate thither. The first of these was Archi- 
bald Clybourn, the oldest son of Elizabeth, who remained a per- 
manent resident and an esteemed citizen, well known to thou- 
sands of the present inhabitants of Chicago. 

His mother was Elizabeth, the captive, who with her second 
husband, Mr. Clybourn, soon afterwards came to Chicago. More 
will be said of them in future pages. Mr. Benjamin Hall was 
another one of Chicago's pioneers who emigrated to the place in 
consequence of Mr. David Hall's commendations of its future 
promise. Margaret, the captive, was his aunt, and to him the 
writer is indebted for the detail of Margaret's and Elizabeth's 
history.* Mr. Hall is now a resident of Wheaton. He came to 
Chicago in 1830, and was the proprietor of the first tannery ever 
established there. He married the sister of the Hon. J. D. Uaton, 
and raised an esteemed family of children, who are now scattered 
in the west. Elizabeth Kinzie, daughter of John Kinzie, by Mar- 
garet, became the wife of Samuel Miller, from a respectable 
Quaker family of Ohio. This woman was highly esteemed by 
all who knew her for her excellent traits. Her husband kept the 
Miller house at the forks of the Chicago rivers, and is still 

*A partial history of Margaret's captivity is given in Howe's Historical Col- 
lections 01 Virginia, pages 278 and 279. 



226 John Kinzie and Family Settle in Chicago. 

remembered by a few of Chicago's old settlers as a respected cit- 
izen. Mrs. Miller died at this house in 1832, leaving three very 
promising children. 

James Kinzie came to Chicago abont 1824, and was well received 
by his father, who assisted him in his first efforts to establish 
himself in the place. He amassed considerable wealth, but lost 
the most of it in the crash of 1837, when he removed to Wiscon- 
sin, where he died about the year 1860. 

"We will now return to the early days of the fort, where a few 
superannated soldiers stood guard at this frontier post through 
the winter of 1803-4, like hermits in a wilderness. If they ob- 
tained any tidings of what was going on in the outside world, 
it must have been through the agency of some chance pedestrian 
messenger, and any news he might bring would lack authenticity. 
But even this satisfaction was probably not afforded them, in 
their wild recluse. The next spring, however, was destined to 
bring an arrival to their post of a permanent character, whose 
presence should help to bring around them the social conditions 
of settled communities. Mr. John Kinzie, himself, was then a 
resident of Detroit, but had determined to make Chicago his 
future home. His wife was the mother of a daughter by her 
first husband, which daughter was now a member of his family. 
The baby, John H. Kinzie, was now about six months old. An 
Indian trail then led from Deroit through Ypsilanti (then known 
as Charms trading station), Niles and St. Joseph, around the 
southern extremity of Lake Michigan, thence one branch led to 
Chicago and another to Rock Island, on the Mississippi river. 
This was the only way by which Mr. Kinzie could reach the 
place, and horseback was the only means of transportation. 

Accordingly their effects were packed in sacks and lashed to a 
horse's back, and Mr. and Mrs. Kinzie and the daughter were 
each mounted on a horse, with Johnny slung in a swaddling 
pocket from the horn of a saddle, and the journey was begun. 
Day after day they pursued their wooded trail, camping out each 
night, till Chicago was reached. Soon after his arrival he pur- 
chased a small French trading establishment of a man named 
LeMai, of whom mention has been made in a previous chapter, 
and from time to time this hut was improved as the home of 
Mr. Kinzie, till a comfortable house substituted it, as shown in 
its picture on another page. This was the first private dwelling 
ever built in Chicago as an American city. It stood on the north 
bank of the river, opposite the fort, fronting towards the south. 
A small boat chained to the bank was always in readiness to ferry 
forward and back between his home and the fort, and this con- 
stituted Chicago as it was then, begun by John Kinzie and three 
French families who then resided there; one of which was Le- 



Mrs. Whistler. 227 

Mai's, and the other two were Ouilmette's and Pettell's families. 
Ouilmette remained a permanent resident of Chicago, and was 
ever true to the American interest, which record was rewarded 
by a large reservation of land for him north of Chicago, which 
still perpetuates his .memory. Capt. Whistler's wife, then a 
bride of but sixteen years, is still (in 1879) living. Henry W. 
Hurlbut, Esq., a present citizen of Chicago, visited her in 1875, 
and thus describes the interview in his pamphlet on Chicago 
Antiquities, page 24: 

" It was a coveted privilege in which we sought, as any one 
might believe, for it was during the tremendous rain-storm of 
the evening of the 29th of October, 1875, that we sallied out to 
call on Mrs. Col. K. A. Kinzie for an introduction to that lady's 
mother, Mrs. Whistler. When we entered the parlor, the ven- 
erable woman was engaged at the centre-table in some game of 
amusement with her grand-children and great-grand-children, 
seemingly as much interested as any of the juveniles. 

(We will remark here that live generations oi this family have 
lived in Chicago.) 

" She claimed to enjoy good health, and was apparently an unu- 
sual, specimen of well-preserved faculties, both intellectual and 
physical. She is of a tall form, and her appearance still indicates 
the truth of the common report, that in her early years she was 
a person of surpassing elegance. A marked trait of her has been 
a spirit of unyielding energy and determination, and which length 
of years has not yet subdued. Her tenacious memory ministers 
to a voluble tongue, and we may say briefly, she is an agreeable, 
intelligent and sprightly lady, numbering only a little over 88 
years. " To-day," said she, " I received my first pension on 
account of my husband's services." Mrs. Whistler resides in 
Newport, Kentucky. She has one son and several grandsons in 
the army. Born in Salem, Mass., July 3d, 1787, her maiden 
name was Julia Ferson, and her parents were John and Mary 
LaDuke Ferson. In childhood she removed with her parents to 
Detroit, where she received most of her education. In the month 
of May, 1802, she was married to William Whistler (born in 
Hagerstown, Md., about 1784), a second Lieut, in the company of 
his father, Capt. John Whistler, H. S. A., then stationed at Detroit." 

He held command of Fort Dearborn, the name given to the 
new fortification, till 1811, and during this whole time nothing 
occurred to disturb the peace of the place. 

The Indians kept up a trade in furs with " Shaw-neawkee," the 
name they gave to Mr. Kinzie, which, in their language, meant 
a silversmith. And during this term of years the even measure 
of justice, as well as the agreeable demeanor of Mr. Kinzie to 
them, established a friendship between themselves and him, 



228 The Fur Trader, 

which proved a precious deliverance to himself and family when 
the Red Man again took the war-path. 

" Mrs. John H. Kinzie, the authoress of that graphic picture of 
frontier life (Wabun), in speaking of John Kinzie's first days in 
Chicago, and his experiences in the fur trade, in which he was 
engaged, says: " By degrees more remote trading posts were es- 
tablished by him, all contributing to the parent one at Chicago; 
at Milwaukee, with the Menominees; at Rock River, with the 
Winnebagoes and the Pottawatomies; on the Illinois river and 
Kankakee, with the Pottawatomies of the Prairies and with the 
Kickapoos, in what was called 'Le Large' — being the widely ex- 
tended district afterwards created into Sangamon county. Each 
trading post had its superintendent and its complement of en- 
gages — its train of pack-horses and its equipment of boats and 
canoes. From most of the stations the furs and peltries were 
brought to Chicago on pack-horses, and the goods necessary for 
the trade were transported in return by the same method. The 
vessels which came in the spring and fall (seldom more than two 
or three annually), to bring the supplies and goods for the trade, 
took the furs that were already collected to Mackinaw, the depot 
of the Southwest and American Fur Companies. At other sea- 
sons they were sent to the place in boats coasting around the 
lake." 

" Of the Canadian voyageurs, or engages," (continues Mrs. 
Kinzie,) " a race that has now so nearly passed away, some notice 
may very properly here be given. They were unlike any other 
class of men. Like the poet, they seemed born to their vocation. 
Sturdy, enduring, ingenious and light-hearted, they possessed a 
spirit capable of adapting itself to any emergency. Ko difficul- 
ties baffled, no hardships discouraged them, while their affection- 
ate nature led them to form attachments of the warmest charac- 
ter to their ' bourgeois,' or master, as well as to the native in- 
habitants among whom their engagements carried them. Mon- 
treal, or according to their own pronunciation, Marrialle, was 
their depot. It was at that place that the agents commissioned 
to make up the quota for the different companies and traders, 
found material for their selections. 

The terms of engagement were usually from four to six hun- 
dred livres (ancient Quebec currency) per annum, as wages, 
with rations of one quart of lyed corn and two ounces of tallow 
per diem, or its equivalent in whatever sort of food is to be found 
in the Indian country. Instances have been found of their sub- 
mitting cheerfully to fare upon fresh fish and maple sugar for a 
whole winter, when cut off from other supplies. It was a com- 
mon saying, " Keep an engagee to his corn and tallow, and he will 



MicMlimacinac. 229 

serve yon well ; give him pork and bread, and he soon gets be- 
yond your management." 

At this time Michilimacinac was a place of extensive com- 
merce with the Indians. Thither went the distant Sioux, and 
other tribes, botli from far and near, to exchange their furs for 
such necessities as had then become indispensable to the Indians. 
And there gathered the fearless spirits of the frontier, who glo- 
ried in the privations of the wilderness, wilder, if possible, than 
the natives themselves, and not less hardy. These excitements 
gave to the place a metropolitan character far above the Chicago 
portage, which was then only an outpost of Old " Mackinaw." 

Thus closes a chapter of civil and savage amenities springing 
into a transitory life, strangely intermingled together, while the 
young nation, in her fecundity, is giving birth to metropolitan 
cities. What was then a reality appears in retrospect like a 
dream to us who are rivalling each other in the arts of elegance 
and luxury, and jostling each other along the paths of life for 
want of elbow room wherewith to ventilate an ambition more 
studious in mentality, more psychological, more in accordance 
with man's nobler nature; but possibly not untarnished with 
subtle vices that will be more apparent to the readers of our his- 
tory a hundred years hence than they are to us now. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Governor Harrison's Efforts to Extinguish Indian Titles to 
Lands — Indian Discontents — Tecumseh — The Prophet — 
Tecumseh? 8 Interview vnth Harrison — Its Threatening As- 
pect — Tecumseh' 's Attempt to Form a Confederacy — Harri- 
son Marches into the Indian Country — Encamps at Tippe- 
canoe — The Prophet Attacks Him — Is Defeated — Tecumseh' s 
Plans Frustrated hy the Battle — The Territory of Illinois 
Organized — Ninian Edwards Appointed Governor. 

Under the able administration of Harrison as governor of the 
territory of Indiana, and the peaceful appearance of the Indians, 
emigration increased, and the lands yet ceded by the Indians to 
the United States were quite inadequate to the demand, and the 
call was for more land. To satisfy this call the Wyandots ceded 
that portion of Ohio known as the Western Reserve on July 4, 
1805. On the 21st of August, the same year, the Miami's 
ceded a tract containing two million acres, Governor Harrison 
being the purchaser; and on the 30th of December following the 
Piankeshaws ceded a tract eighty miles wide along the west 
bank of the Wabash, which included all the land between that 
stream and a cession which the Kaskaskias had made in 1803. 
While these tribes were relinquishing the Indian hunting 
grounds to white settlements by piecemeal, unmindful of the 
results which might grow out of such an abandonment of the 
forest, there were a few master minds among them who, could 
clearly forecast the end, if such sales were not prevented. 

Prominent among these was Tecumseh, Chief of the Shaw- 
aneese, who may be looked upon as the last representative of the 
original nobility of his declining race. He beheld the cessions 
of lands to the United States with alarm, and resolved to make 
one final effort to stay the progress of the woodchopper's axe, and 
preserve the remaining forests of the west inviolable to their 
native owners — a desperate and fool hardy resolution unless 
English aid was expected to hi&cause. But however certain this 
might appear in his estimation, he commenced the work before 
him in a peaceble and statesmanlike manner. The first step to 

(230) 



Tecumseh Attempts to Form a Confederacy. 231 

be taken was to form an Indian confederacy, by means of a pri- 
vate ■ council, with representative men among the Indians, the 
principal object of which should be to prevent the further sale 
of lands to the United States, except by consent of the confeder- 
acy, which was intended to unite the entire Indian population of 
the northwest. 

This council was held at Greenville, about the year 1S06. 
Tecumseh and his brother, who was gifted with prophecy as was 
supposed, were the leading spirits comprising it. Billy Caldwell, 
an educated half-breed,* was private secretary to Tecumseh. 

Tecumseh could read and write, but the book of nature was 
hie most highly prized volume, and the lines of the human face 
were in his scrutinizing glance the plain indexes to the heart. 
Greenville was from this time his headquarters, where he held 
his court, and from which place both he and his brother, the 
prophet, frequently went forth to visit the different tribes of the 
country, and impress upon them the necessity of a united effort 
for mutual protection. In this labor the prophet's inrluence was 
perhaps greater than that of Tecumseh himself, for it had a 
leverage from another world wherewith to bear upon life in this, 
while Tecnmseh's logic was circumscribed to public policy. 

The prophet dreamed and saw visions, and his earnest zeal 
was souii rewarded with a great awakening among his swarthy 
brethren. Both he and Tecumseh lent their powerful inrluence 
in favor of temperance, as well as many other causes in which 
they were engaged. But the cause must at heart was the organ- 
ization of the great Indian confederacy. In the spring of 1808, 
they moved their headquarters to the banks of a small stream, 
called Tippecanoe, which emptied into the Wabash, and here 
immediately sprung up a modern Mecca, to which swarthy pil- 
grims came fromfarand near to commune with some transcend- 
ent power which was to carry their race safely through the wil- 
derness of their griefs. All this time Tecumseh was running 
from tribe to tribe to propagate his new political principles, and 
no evidence exists that he advocated anything but peaceful meas- 
ures to fulfil his laudable designs, as history is compelled to call 
them. The following August he visited Gov. Harrison at Yin- 
cennes. The interview was a pleasant one, and won the confi- 
dence of Harrison sufficiently to set at rest any misgivings he 

*Billy Caldwell scon afterwards became principal chief of the Pottawatomies, 
and after the war was over made Chicago his residence, till his tribe was removed 
to the neighborhood of Council Biutfs. in 1835-6. Here he died in 1845. In 
1833 Mr. Perkins, who wrote "The AVestern Annals.** had an interview with 
him at Chicago, at which time he had a trunk full of papers pertaining to the 
war, and particularly Tecuniseh's participation in it; and it was at this inter- 
view that Mr. Perkins learned of the private council which Tecumseh held at 
Greenville. See Western Annals, p. 550. 



232 Win-a-mac^ s Influence in Council. 

might formerly have had as to direct warlike intentions of the 
distinguished chief. Still his caution never slept, and he was 
ever on the watch for any new phase which might develop be- 
tween the two antagonistic elements under his territorial charge, 
at the head of one of which he stood, while Tecnmseh ably repre- 
sented the other. Two years later, in 1810, the census of Indiana 
territory showed a population of 24,520, and there were in the 
territory 33 grist mills, 14 saw mills, 18 tanneries, 28 distille- 
ries, 3 powder mills, 1,256 hand-looms, and 1,350 spinning 
wheels. This showed a quadruple increase in the number of 
inhabitants, and much more than that in its agricultural and 
manufacturing interests during the ten years since its first or- 
ganization as a territory. 

That these augmentations to the white settlements had in-, 
creased the jealousy of Tecumseh and the Prophet, was well 
known. The latter was daily increasing in popularity, as was 
amply shown by the numbers who gathered around him to hear 
him foretell the good things in store for the Indian race, and 
tone up their resolution to verily them. Meantime Harrison 
deemed it prudent to try if possible to counteract this influence, 
and to this end sent messengers to the Miamis, Delawares and 
Pottawatomies, whose business it was to assure those tribes of 
the protection and friendship of the United States, and to warn 
them against the pretensions of the Prophet. His influence had 
now extended to the tribes around lake Michigan, and early in 
May, 1810, the Pottawatomies, Chippewas and Ottawas held a 
council at St. Joseph to consider the propriety of joining his 
standard. 

In this council Win-a-mac, a distinguished Pottawatomie chief, 
well known to the early settlers of Chicago, used his influence 
against the Prophet. This friendly intervention in favor of the 
whites was due to the influence which Mr. Kinzie and the officers 
of Fort Dearborn had exerted over him. It prevailed in the 
council, and no encouragement was given to the emissaries of the 
Prophet. On the contrary, Win-a-mac sent valuable information 
to Governor Harrison as to the numbers of hostile tribes. No 
act of hostility had yet been committed, but signs of brooding 
discontent were on the increase; among the Shawanese, in par- 
ticular, who, in their honor-clad armor of independence, refused 
to receive their annuity of salt which the United States govern- 
ment were accustomed to give, and insulted the agents sent to de- 
liver it, by calling them " dogs." This palpable sign of hostility 
caused Governor Harrison to send a messenger forthwith to 
Prophet's town* to ascertain the causes of discontent. At first the 

* An Indian town, near Tippecanoe Creek, where the prophet lived. 



Interview Between Harrison and Tecumseh. 233 

prophet laid the blame as usual on some of his hasty young men, 
but when pressed by Mr. Dubois, Harrison's faithful messenger, 
for the real reason, he complained that the Indians had been 
cheated out of their lands — that no sale was good unless made 
by alb the tribes. In reply to this complaint, Governor Harrison 
returned an answer, offering to restore any lands to the Indians 
that had not been fairly purchased. This message was sent by 
a Mr. Barron, with two associates, Brouillette and Dubois. 
Arriving at the place they were conducted into the presence of 
the high priest, with no small measure of ceremony. When within 
a few feet of his majesty, u He looked at me," said Barron, 
"for several minutes without speaking or making any sign of 
recognition, although he knew me well. At last he spoke, ap- 
parently in anger. Tor what purpose do you come here?' 
said he. He then accused them all of being spies, and point- 
ing to the ground, said : 'There's your grave ! Look on it.' " 
Tecumseh, who was present, now interfered, to save the lives 
of the messengers — assured them of their safety, and received 
their message. No answer was given to it, but Tecumseh said 
he would visit Harrison at Vinceimes, in a few days, and re- 
ply to him. The messengers now withdrew. 

On the 12th of August succeeding (1810), true to his word, 
Tecumseh, attended by 75 warriors, paid his respects to Governor 
Harrison. He remained in Yincennes twelve days, holding fre- 
quent interviews with him, always with an air of hauteur, which 
only an Indian can assume with grace. On the 20th, addressing 
the governor, he said: " Brother — Since the peace of Greenville, 
in 1795, was made, you have killed some of the Shawnees, Win- 
nebagoes, Delawares and Miamis, and you have taken our lands 
from us, and I do not see how we can remain at peace with you 
if you continue to do so. You try to force the red people to do 
some injury. It is you that are pushing them on to do mischief. 
You wish to prevent the Indians to do as we wish them, to unite 
and let them consider their lands as the common property of the 
whole. You take tribes aside and advise them not to come into 
this measure. The reason I tell you this is, you want, by your 
distinctions of Indian tribes, in allotting to each a particular tract, 
to make them to war with each other. You never see an Indian 
endeavor to make the white people do so. You are continually 
driving the red people; when at last you will drive them onto the 
great lake, when they can't either stand or work. Since my resi- 
dence at Tippecanoe, we have endeavored to level all distinctions 
— to destroy village chiefs, by whom all mischief is done. It is 
they who sell our lands to Americans. Brother, this land that 
was sold, and the goods that were given for it, was only done by 
a few. The treaty was afterward brought here and the Weas were 



23i Rage of Tecumseh. 

induced to give their consent, because of their small numbers. 
The treaty of Fort Wayne was made through the threats of Win- 
amac, but in future we are prepared to punish those who may 
propose to sell land. If you continue to purchase of them, it will 
make war among the different tribes, and at last I do not know 
what will be the consequence among the white people. Brother, 
I wish you would take pity on the red people and do what I have 
requested. If you will not give up the land, and do cross the 
boundary of your present settlement, it will be very hard andj>ro- 
duce great trouble among us. How can we have confidence in 
the white people? When Jesus Christ came upon the earth you 
killed him and nailed him on a cross. You thought he was dead, 
but you were mistaken. You have Shakers among 3^011, and you 
laugh and make light of their worship. Everything I have said 
to you is the truth. The great spirit has inspired me. If you 
think proper to give us any presents, and we can be convinced 
that they are given through friendship alone, we will accept 
them." * 

To this speech Harrison replied, by contrasting the conduct of 
the United States towards the Indians with that of other civil- 
ized nations towards savages within their jurisdiction, and draw- 
ing a comparison favorable to the United States. This stung 
Tecumseh to the quick, and he leaped to his feet from the ground 
where he was reposing, and with violent gesticulation declared that 
both Governor Harrison and the United States had cheated the 
Indians. A number of his party sharing his feelings of resent- 
ment, sprang to his side, apparently ready to attack the governor 
and his party on the spot. General Gibson, who was then secre- 
tary of the Territory, instantly brought twelve men armed with 
sabres to the front, while Harrison himself firmly grasped the 
hilt of his sword and boldly confronted the angry chief and his 
party, whose war clubs, tomahawks and spears flashed defiance. 
No blow was struck, but Harrison reproached Tecumseh for his 
conduct, and requested him instantly to depart to his camp, say- 
ing at the same time, he would send his speech to his tribe in 
written form. The next morning Tecumseh made apologies for 
his hasty ebullition of fury, and begged another interview with 
Harrison. It was granted, and Tecumseh by his respectful de- 
meanor, made ample amends for his misconduct the day before. 

Nothing was settled by the interview, however, but at the close 
of the council Tecumseh hoped that the Great Spirit would put 
sense enough into the head of the President to restore the lands 
in question to the Indians, and took his departure, after saying 
with emphasis to Harrison: "He may sit in his own town and 

* This report of Tecumseh 's speech is but an extract embodying his strong 
points. 



Tecumseh Seeks Alliance from the Southern Tribes. 235 

drink his wine, while von and I will have to fight it out." The 
next year (IS 11), on the 24th of June, Governor Harrison sent Cap- 
tain Wilson to confer with Tecumseh atProphetstown, for the pur- 
pose of conciliating the still dissatisfied chief. Tecumseh received 
him with great courtesy, but eloquently expatiated on the causes of 
which the Indians complained, and promised to come again to Yin- 
cennes to confer with Governor Harrison in the matter. On the 
27th of July following he came, attended by 300 of his men. 
There were then 750 militia ready for duty in Yincennes, and these 
were placed under arms ready for an emergency. Of course the 
interview settled nothing, for it was absurd to suppose the land 
that had been purchased of single tribes could ever be restored 
to the Indians, and nothing short of this would satisfy Tecumseh. 

Soon after this conference ended, Tecumseh, with twenty 
attendants, started for the distant country of the Chickasaws, 
Creeks and. Choctaws, for the purpose of securing their alliance 
to his cause in a conflict which he felt was pending. Meantime, 
the English agents among the Indians were generous in the dis- 
tribution of presents among them. There was a belligerent feel- 
ing at that time between the English and American people, not 
only on account of old scores, but new issues had come between 
the two nations, brought into being by what was called the 
Continental System in Europe, which will be explained in the 
next chapter, and its effects were felt wherever the English name 
was known, even to the extreme limits of the frontiers of civiliza- 
tion in the forests of America, where the unambitious native, 
gaunt with hunger and offensive with dirt, but loyal to the 
ensign of St. George, was ready to take the war-path for his 
English father. There was a reason for this. The English had 
everything to hope for in his friendship and nothing to lose. 

The Americans could gain nothing by his friendship, but his 
enmity would be a pretext by which to deprive him of the soil, 
tinder this duress, the unhappy red men were between two fires, 
fighting the battles of the English in the front, only to be for- 
saken in the distribution of victory's spoils, whichever way the 
cause went. While the issue was maturing between the English 
and Americans, by the indiscretions oi' the Prophet, during 
Tecumseh's absence to bring allies to his cause, the inevitable 
outbreak came with the Indians. On the 17th of July, 1811, the 
President authorized Harrison to summon to his aid the fourth 
regiment of infantry, under command of Col. Boyd. On the 
26th of September the army took up its march toward Prophets- 
town, the headquarters of the Prophet. Having marched sixty- 
five miles up the Wabash, Fort Harrison was built on the 5th of 
October. On the 31st, the mouth of the Yermillion river was 



236 Battle- of Tippecanoe. 

readied, where a block-house was built for the protection of the 
baggage. 

Agair resuming his march on the night of the 6th of Novem- 
ber, he arrived at Tippecanoe, which was situated about seven 
miles northwest of the present city of Lafayette. Here Harrison 
was met by a delegation from the camp of the Prophet, which 
was but a short distance away, where a thousand braves were as- 
sembled, ready to make a dash at the invaders as soon as a favor- 
able moment came. All hostile intentions, however, were 
disavowed on both sides, but Harrison ordered his men to encamp 
that night in order of battle, with their clothes on and their arms 
b} r their side, and in case of an attack, the outermost lines were 
ordered to maintain their ground till reinforced. At the Indian 
camp all was silent as the grave. Tecum seh was in the far dis- 
tant south, in the country of the Cherokees, and had given his 
brother, the Prophet, orders not to commence hostilities; but in 
his rashness he disregarded them, and laid his plans to attack 
Harrison the next morning. Before the dawn of day a heavy 
body of Indians made a dash on the left flank of the Americans. 
The sentinels were driven in, and the conflict was carried into 
the very camp of the invaders. In a few minutes the whole 
front, both flanks, and even the rear, were engaged. 

The camp-fires still lit up the grounds, for daylight had not 
yet come to the relief of the Americans, and the Indians poured 
a destructive fire into their ranks from a covert of darkness. 
With admirable coolness, Harrison ordered the fires extinguished, 
which placed the combattants on equal terms. Now, hand-to- 
hand encounters, and random shots through the outer darkness, 
amidst a tumult of yells, raged along the whole line till day- 
light. A furious charge was then made upon the Indians. They 
received it with admirable courage at first, but finally fled to an 
adjacent swamp, where Harrison did not deem it prudent to fol- 
low them. 

The American loss was 37 killed and 151 wounded; the loss 
of the Indians was somewhat smaller. 

Tecumseh, with a keen insight into the future, had not intended 
to precipitate the conflict with the Americans till his English 
friends were ready to render him more substantial aid, and when 
he returned home and learned that the Prophet had disobeyed 
his orders by making the first attack, and of the disastrous 
results of it, his passions rose to a dangerous pitch, and. it was 
with difficulty he could be restrained from, killing him on the 
spot. After the battle, the Indian stores of corn, etc., at Pro- 
phetstown were destroyed. The Prophet lost his prestige and 
nearly all the different tribes of Indians were inclined towards 
peace. Tecumseh was forced into a lukewarm acquiescence in 






Illinois Territory Organized. 237 

this state of things among his people, but instead of their taking 
part in the treaty of peace which followed, went to Maiden, in 
Canada, to take council with his British friends, but the end was 
not yet. The Tippecanoe campaign was a great damage to the 
Indian cause, especially as its result was disastrous to them, and 
proved an effectual barrier to the Indian confederacy which 
Tecum seh aimed at with laudable ambition, as the only means 
by which his people could be preserved. The news of the battle 
spreading through the country came to the ears of John Kinzic, 
at Charm e's trading post (Ypsilanti), Mich. He was on his way 
to Detroit, but apprehensive of a general uprising among the 
Indians, he hastened home to look to the safety of his family, by 
further strengthening the chain of friendship with the Potta- 
watomies.* 

While the events of the late campaign had been maturing to 
the temporary issue at Tippecanoe, settlements had been pro- 
gressing with but little interruption, for the late battle was a 
sudden spasm of ferocity, which the Prophet had prematurely 
thrust into the arena, before Tecumseh's favorite plan of an Indian 
confederacy had been executed, and no warning against border 
war had come to the ears of emigrants. Nor had legislation 
suspended its progressive action respecting the political progress 
of the Western territory, Congress having, on February 3d, 1S0D, 
constituted the new Territory of Illinois. On the east it was 
bounded by the Wabash river from its mouth to Yincennes, 
thence by a line due north to the Canada line (which line, of 
course, would cross lake Michigan lengthwise), on the north by 
the British possessions, on the west by the Mississippi river, and 
on the south by the Ohio, between the mouth of the Wabash and 
tiie junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi. 

JNTinian Edwards was transferred from the post of Chief Jus- 
tice of Kentucky to the Governor's chair of the new Territory, 
and Nathaniel Pope, whose home was already at Kaskaskia, was 
appointed Secretary by President Madison. Early in March Mr. 
Pope organized the Territory, and the following June, on the 
11th, Mr. Edwards took his seat as governor at Kaskaskia. Tiie 
code of Indiana Territory, under which the inhabitants had lived 
for the eight years previous, was at first adopted, but soon after- 
wards detailed penalties were affixed for the punishment of 
every possible form of offense, some of which have long since 
been repealed as unwarrantable. St. Clair and Kandolph were 
the first two counties organized. Their limits can hardly bo 
given, in the great waste of unsettled domain over which the 
jurisdiction of Illinois then extended. 

*Wabun, p. 217. 



238 Great Earthquake. 

The extreme southern portions of the State were sparsely 
sprinkled over with new settlements from Virginia and Ken- 
tucky. St. Louis was a thriving town, largely composed of 
French fur traders. Fort Madison had been built on the west 
bank of the Mississippi, where the city of the same name now 
stands in Iowa. Prairie Du Ohien, then a thrifty trading post, 
at the mouth of the Wisconsin river, was within the jurisdiction 
of the new territory, as well as La Pointe and Green Bay, while 
Chicago was only known as an Indian portage, and the locality 
of a weakly garrisoned fort. 

At Peoria was a French village, established after a hyatus of 
many years since LaSalle first built Fort Crevecoeur there. 

This second founding was of an uncertain date, but it was 
many years subsequent to the settlement of the French villages 
of Kaskaskia and Cahokia. 

Besides the battle of Tippecanoe, three remarkable events oc- 
curred during the year 1811 in the northwest. A severe frost 
almost entirely destroyed the corn crop. The first steamboat 
that ever made its appearance on Western waters made a trip 
from Pittsburgh, where she was built, to New Orleans ; and a 
violent earthquake was felt throughout the entire country. It 
took place in December, and continued several days in a succes- 
sion of violent shocks of the ground, lashing the forest trees 
against each other with fearful violence. At times, through 
opening fissures in the ground, steam hissed out like the escape- 
ment of pent up and heated vapors, during which phenomenon 
loud reports, like the muffled sounds of thunder, continued to 
peal forth as if from an invisible source. It was felt the severest 
at New Madrid, on the Mississippi, where a large area of land 
sunk into the bowels of the earth, and, to fill the chasm, the Mis- 
sissippi from below flowed backwards for some hours. 



CHAPTER XYL 

Jay's treaty of 1794 — Its Beneficial Effects — Decrees of Berlin 
and Milan — Retaliatory English Orders — The Continental 
System — America Victimized by it— The Embargo and non- 
intercourse Acts — Fruitless Negotiation betvieen England 
and the United States — Complications with France — The 
French Decrees Revoked — The United States Declare War 
Against England — The British on the Lakes — General- Hall 
Beaches Detroit with an Army — Crosses into Canada — Re- 
connoisance of Colonel Cass — First Hostile Shot in the War 
of 1812 — General Hull Returns to Detroit — Michilimacinac 
Taken by the English — Tecumseh in the British Service — 
Indian Raid on Lees Place — Panic at Chicago — Ge\ 
Hull at Detroit — He Crosses the River into Canada — His 
Perplexities — His Surrender. 

Jay's treaty of 1794 has already been alluded to. A brief 
detail of the conditions which brought it into being from the 
master mind that took within its grasp those conditions, and first 
caused the rights of America, as a member of the family of 
nations, to be acknowledged by England, forms a bright page in 
American history, and inasmuch as the most vital part of these 
conditions grew into being in the Northwest, a record of them 
will here be made. 

After the peace of 1783, which guaranteed to us simple inde- 
pendence only, the United States found themselves but a loosely 
bound confederacy of thirteen colonies, without even a constitu- 
tion. The English court did not even honor us with a minister 
till 1789, and all the while excluded our commerce from all their 
colonial ports, thereby forcing American merchants to trade 
largely through English channels, under the monopolizing system 
that she had established by means of her armament on the high 
seas, directed by her laws of trade.* Her vessels of war seemed 

* In 1744, England laid the foundation for her unexampled prosperity as a 
trading nation by establishing a maxim, monopolizing all the trade of her col- 
onies to herself. In 1760, the machinery for enforcing these conditions became 
still more perfect, and the United States were up to 1794, circumscribed within 
its toils. 

(239) 



2.1:0 Decrees of Berlin and Milan. 

almost omnipresent. They swept the American lakes and con- 
stantly supplied their forts, then held on American soil, and from 
these forts they supplied the Indians with all the material they 
wanted wherewith to make the border a scene of strife and blood- 
shed. This aroused the indignation of the Western people in 
particular, and embittered the whole nation against England. 
Still war was impossible, for we had no means out of which to 
establish it. Under these circumstances, even while struggling 
to allay dissentions at home consequent upon uniting under a 
constitution and contending against poverty and an onerous 
public debt, Washington impressed with the necessity of a treaty 
to establish our commercial relations on a firmer and more profit- 
able basis, selected Mr. Jay as the fittest one to negotiate it. 

His task was a difficult one. As to any commercial relations, 
the English already had everything as they wanted it, and were 
reluctant to enter into any obligations which could bring noth- 
ing to them. 

But Mr. Jay was equal to the emergency. His accomplish- 
ments challenged the respect of the English minister, and secured 
the signing of his famous treaty of 1794, by which American 
vessels were first allowed to trade direct with the East Indies and 
other British dependencies. This was all that could be expected 
in a pecuniary way. Next came the points of honor, so vital to 
the western spirit of independence which w T as that the English 
should relinquish the western posts. This point they also con- 
ceded on the terms stated in a previous chapter, and the treaty 
was signed in London, November 19th, 1794, and promptly rati- 
fied by Washington. A lucrative trade immediately sprung up 
as a consequence of the treaty, and continued till the sanguinary 
character which the war between England and France afterwards 
assumed, transcended the comity of nations, and swept away not 
only all treaty rights, but the natural rights of neutrals. 

Eleven years after Jay's treaty, 1805, England destroyed the 
French fleet at Trafalgar, after which all opposition to her on the 
ocean vanished — not a French vessel daring to come within the 
reach of her guns. Meantime, the eyes of the world turned to- 
wards the conquests of Napoleon on the land. The victories of 
Austerlitz and Jena made him master of Southen Europe, and 
from Berlin, the capital of Prussia, in November, 1806, he issued 
decrees, followed by the decrees of Milan early the next year, 
the objects of which were to undermine the power of England. 
These decrees made not only British vessels and goods liable to 
confiscation in the ports of France and her allies, but. also, the 
ships and goods of neutrals bound for English ports. 

To counteract the effect of this blow aimed at the vital foun- 
tains of her prosperity, England issued in November, 1807, 



The Embargo and Non- Intercourse Acts. 241 

plenary orders for the confiscation of ships and goods bonnd for 
the ports of France and her allies, from wherever they might 
come; and her ability to execute these orders made them effec- 
tive, and ultimately recoiled with force against Napoleon, the 
prime mover in this attempt to fight natural destiny. The 
United States was victimized by the decrees of both nations, par- 
ticularly by the English orders, among which were the following: 

" All trade directly from America to every port and country 
in Europe, at war with Great Britain, is totally prohibited. All 
articles, whether ^f domestic or colonial produce exported by 
America to Europe, must be landed in England, from whence it 
is intended to permit their re-exportation under such regulations 
as may hereafter be determined." Such was the Continental 
System. It embraced within its toils an issue, vital to the inter- 
ests of any part of the world that wished to trade with England 
or France, or their allies, and with dogged resolution these Ti- 
tanic powers watched both sea and land to augment the force of 
war by their extreme as well as novel measures. 

Smarting under its effects, the United States dipped her oar 
into the great sea of hostile diplomacy, by passing the Embargo 
Act of December, 1807, and the Non-intercourse Act of March, 
1809. These acts, together with certain municipal regulations 
which preceded them, were designed, first to prohibit certain 
articles of foreign importation, and finally to cut off all exporta- 
tion to England and France, by withdrawing American com- 
merce from those countries, under an impression that they could 
not carry on their wars without our bread supplies, and would as- 
a measure of compromise, modify their indiscriminate laws 
against trade so as to admit our vessels to their ports. It required 
no small measure of sacrifice to take these steps. The people 
had been enriching themselves out of the misfortunes of Europe 
in their disuse of the plow, and sanguinary practise of the 
sword, but now this source of wealth was entirely cut off by 
their own acts, which, instead of improving their condition, 
made it worse. The resentment of France was aroused, and the 
April following the Embargo Act she passed the decrees of Bay- 
onne, and later those of Rambouillet, by which every American 
vessel in French ports were lawful prizes. The apology for this 
act was, that any American vessels in their ports were there in 
violation of the Embargo Act, and consequently were British 
property (a deduction that hung on an uncertain contingency, 
and exhibited more defiance than discretion). 

England, armed with iron-clad dignity, took but little notice 
of these retaliatory measures of the United States, but continued 
her right of search and its consequent impressment of American 
seamen into her service, a very questionable prerogative that she 



2-12 Fruitless Negotiation for Commercial Rights. 

had never abandoned since our colonial vassalage, if her necessities 
required its practice. The collosal proportions which the war 
between England and France had now assumed, by which they 
were daily weakening each other, may have extended the limit of 
American forbearance to declare war ; instead of doing which she 
made an offer to England to rescind her embargo and non-inter- 
course acts, if she, England, would abolish her orders of 1807. 

This offer England rejected, on the ground that she would not 
accept a favor from America which might benefit France. g 

Under this duress the United States were placed in a position 
in which they must either bear their grievances with patience, or 
commit the absurdity of declaring war against two nations at war 
with each other. The following abstract of a report made to the 
House of Representatives, in November, 1809, will show the com- 
plex attitude of our grievances which had thus far set negotiation 
at defiance : 

"The aggressions of England and France, affecting almost the 
whole of our commerce, are no less than a war waged by both 
nations against our trading interests. It is evident that the only 
effectual way of resistance is war. A permanent suspension of 
commerce, after repeated and unavailing efforts to obtain peace, 
would not properly be resistance. It would be withdrawing from 
the contest and abandoning an indisputable right to navigate the 
ocean. The present unsettled state of the world, the extraordi- 
nary situation in which the United States are placed, and the 
necessity, if war be resorted to, of making it against the two 
most powerful nations of the world, are the causes of hesitation.'' 
Matters remained in these phases of discontent till 1810, up to 
which time several years of fruitless diplomacy had been wastecl 
in vain attempts to restore American commerce to its natural 
rights in the family of nations. Two different compromises, al- 
most concluded between England and the United States, had been 
broken off, one by the President of the United States, because it 
did not relinquish the right of search, and the other by the Eng- 
lish King, because his Minister, Mr. Erskine, had exceeded his 
instructions as to its terms. Mr. Jefferson, then President, drew 
upon himself much censure from the New England States for* 

*Jefferson's mission to France terminating in 1789, had well nigh turned his 
brain, and made it impossible for him to look with candor upon the issue that 
then hung over the country — so prejudiced was he in favor of the extreme 
rights of man, as promulgated by the Revolutionary spirit of France in that 
eventful period. This accounts for his rejection of the compromise of England 
without consulting the senate. Naturally inclined to espouse the cause of the 
people and gain popular applause, he became the champion of Radical democ- 
racy in America, and accused AY asnm g"ton, Hamilton, John Adams, and the 
whole body of Federalists, of being Anglo-Monarchic Aristocrats — fiiends of 
England and enemies of France in their contest. See his letter to Mazzei, 
dated Monticello, April 24th, 1796. It is published officially in the proceedings 
of the Hartford Convention. — [Author. 



Repeal of The French Decrees. 243 

rejecting this compromise (the former) without allowing it to 
come before the Senate, which was then in session. Its provis- 
ions conceded all the United States asked for except the clause as 
to impressment, and on this point the British Government had 
given Mr. Monroe and Mr. Pinkney, our Peace Comissioners, 
informal assurance that its practice should be abandoned. 

This satisfied the New England mind, which was ready to seize 
upon any plausible pretext as a basis of peace by which to bridge 
over the war spirit of the times till more considerate counsels 
could be listened to. 

Pending this turmoil, the grip of Napoleon's decrees which 
had fastened upon all the nations of Europe, except Turkey and 
Sweden, began to weaken. English goods found their way al- 
most everywhere through clandestine channels, and it became 
evident that the Berlin and Milan decrees were a failure. As a 
proof of this, on the 5th of August, 1810, M. de Champagny, 
the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, proposed to the Ameri- 
can Minister in Paris to repeal the Berlin and Milan decrees, on 
the same conditions that had been proposed by the United States 
herself two years before, and also accepted on the part of the 
English Minister, but rejected by the Crown. 

These terms were substantially that all hostile legislation as to 
international trade should cease on both sides. This proposition 
was hailed with delight by Mr. Madison, who had succeeded 
Jefferson as president. 

A message was issued to take the necessary action by which 
the proposal should become a permanent international law. But 
various complex conditions were brought to the surface by the 
British, relative to how far this comity extended to France should 
affect the interests of England. 

France meantime did repeal her obnoxious decrees, at least 
upon the contingency that the United States, after opening com- 
mercial relations with herself, should still enforce her commer- 
cial restrictions against England, unless that power should fully 
revoke her orders of 1807. Accordingly by official notice of the 
French revocation of the decrees bearing date of November 
1st, 1810 (which embodied all her offensive legislation against 
American trade), was duly sent to the United States, and pub- 
lished in the Moniteur, the official organ of the French court at 
Paris, but no notice of it was sent to the English court. Sub- 
sequently, some American vessels, either through ignorance 
or design, were seized as prizes by the French. From these cir- 
cumstances, and in default of the formality of a notice of revo- 
cation, the English insisted that the Berlin and Milan decrees 
were still in force. During the progress of these conciliatory 
overtures from the French nation, a strong appeal was made by 



244 War Declared Against England. 

the Americans to the English Court to repeal their orders of 
1807, on the ground that the French decrees had already been 
repealed. On the 30th of May, 1812, a final reply was made by 
England to this appeal, from which the following is taken: 

" The Berlin and Milan decrees have never been revoked. 
Some partial and insidious relaxations of them may have been 
made in a few instances, as an encouragement to America to 
adopt a system beneficial to France and injurious to Great Brit- 
ain, while the conditions on which alone it has been declared, 
that those decrees wiil ever be revoked, are here explained and 
amplified in a manner to leave no hope of Bonaparte having any 
disposition to renounce the system of injustice which he has 
pursued, so as to make it possible for Great Britain to give up 
those defensive measures she has been obliged to resort to. * 
* * It is now manifest that there was never more than a con- 
ditional offer of repeal made by France, which we had a right to 
complain that America should have asked us to recognize as 
absolute, and which, if accepted in its extent by America, would 
only have formed fresh matter of complaint, and a new ground 
for declining her demands." This final reply of the English 
court was in justification of the declaration made by her the 
previous month, as follows: " If at any time hereafter the 
Berlin and Milan decrees shall, by some authentic act of the 
French government, publicly promulgated, be expressly and 
unconditionally revoked, then the order in council of the 7th of 
January, 1807, shall be revoked." 

To make amends for past grievances against America, must 
have been the incentive of France in abolishing her decrees, but 
it may well be doubted that England was to share any of the 
benefits of this measure, inasmuch as the two countries were still 
at war with each other. That the ambiguous demeanor of 
France towards England in this affair grew out of a desire to 
bring about a war between England and the United States, was 
evident, from the arch diplomacy which preceded it, healing, as 
it did, the differences between their own nations. Meantime, 
the late official action of the English had indefinitely postponed 
the time when she would repeal her laws against the rights of 
neutrals, and notwithstanding the New England people were in 
favor of peace, the tenacity of the English in adhering to their 
ordeis turned the scale. 

The United States were now relieved from complications with 
France, and inasmuch as England had given no encouragement 
that her rigid restrictions on our commerce, or her unjust im- 
pressment of American seamen would be discontinued, the 
United States hesitated no longer, and declared war against Eng- 
land June 18th, 1812. 



The Issue of The War. 245 

That tlie declaration was premature, inasmuch as the United 
States had made no preparation for war. the disastrous results of 
the first campaign fully proved, and yet to add to the complexity 
of our position, the declaration might have been made with equal 
propriety any time within the four years previous, but for our 
complications with France. Xevcr before in 'the history of en- 
lightened nations did such a juxta as well as absurd issue result 
in war. The sword was drawn to fight England under a just 
sense of resentment for grievous practices that she (England) was 
willing to apologize for, as well as to discontinue, but would not 
condescend to enter into a treaty to do so. The summing up of 
the cause between the two nations centered in the following two 
points : First, as to the impressment of American seamen, which 
England gave our commissioners. Mr. Monroe and Mr. Pincknev 
assurance should be discontinued. Second, the English orders 
in council against our commerce, which England offered to re- 
voke as soon as Xapoleon should revoke the decrees of Berlin 
and Milan, an act which the United States contended had already 
been executed, and which act only lacked a bit of red tape (to ase 
a metaphor) to satisfy the English ministers. But even this _ »s- 
samer fabric of formality vanished from the English mind rive 
days after the American declaration of war. at which time (the 
23d of June) the English did formally revoke the obnoxious or- 
ders, in consequence of which the Americans had drawn the 
sword. But the sword was drawn, and could not very well be 
sheathed till old scores were avenged. Several thousand Ameri- 
can citizens, the victims of impressment, were unwillingly right- 
ing the battles of the English, whose fathers and -brothers at 
home called loudly for revenge, and many a pioneer had fallen 
a victim to the scalping-knife, which had been forged on British 
anvils. The British fleet held full command of the lakes, and 
the various tribes of Indians adjacent had for years been subsi- 
dized by presents and honeyed words into friendship for them. 
It was. therefore, evident that along these waters the British 
were the strongest, and here the first blow was to be struck. De- 
troit was then the most important post which the Americans 
held West. General Hull, an officer of the American .Revolu- 
tion, was Governor of the Territory of Michigan, which had been 
organized in 1805, and now contained about 5,000 inhabitants, and 
to him was given the command of the troops destined for defensive 
and offensive operations on the Upper Bakes. A small garrison of 
United States troops was stationed at Michilimacinac and one at 
Chicago, which were the extreme outposts of the Americans. 

Two months previous to the declaration of war, the President 
had ordered Governor Meigs, of Ohio, to raise 1,000 men for the 
"Western service. 



246 General Hull at The Maumee Rapids. 

This he promptly did, and adding 300 more to the number, 
handed them over to General Hull at Dayton, with a patriotic 
speech, at the close of which the volunteers uncovered, and ^ave 
him six rousing cheers. 

Agreeable to his oiders, General Hull took up his march for 
Detroit at the head of his little army. The route over which he 
was to travel had already been made famous by the St. Clair and 
Wayne campaigns, the scene of whose battle-fields he passed, and 
arrived at the Rapids of the Maumee on the 30th of June, twelve 
days after the war had been declared, but of this he was igno- 
rant. Here he rested his meu, near the ruins of the old fort 
which the British had built eighteen years before, which had 
never served any purpose, but to amuse the Indians and inflame 
the resentment of the Americans. The route thence to Detroit 
lay eighteen miles down the Maumee river, across the Western 
extremity of Lake Erie, and up the Detroit river. Maiden was 
then the most important post of the British on the Upper Lakes. 
Ever since they had evacuated the fort's on the American side in 
1796, it had been headquarters for the distribution of Indian pres- 
ents, where the Western tribes had assembled annually to receive 
their blankets, tobacco, knives, etc., and here the British had 
built a fleet of war vessels, which menaced the Americans on our 
entire lake frontier. It was situated on the Canadian side of the 
main channel of the Detroit river, and commanded its most di- 
rect passage. As ill-fortune would have it, while resting at the 
Rapids on the 1st of July, General Hull despatched a schooner 
and a boat to Detroit in advance of his army, which was to reach 
the place by land. On board the schooner were a few invalids, 
the hospital stores, and a trunk, containing his official papers 
from Washington. During the succeeding night the schooner 
passed the boat, leaving her behind, and kept on her course. The 
next day she entered the Detroit river, and coming in sight of 
the Hunter, an English armed brig, she was obliged to surrender. 
The boat fortunately reached her destination unobserved by the 
English, she having by chance taken the channel of the river 
West of Boisblanc Island. The day after the schooner left the 
Rapids a messenger came to the quarters of General Hull with 
a letter, of which he was the bearer, from the Postmaster at 
Cleveland. Its contents ran as follows : " Sir : — War is de- 
clared against Great Britain. You will be on your guard. Pro- 
ceed to your post (Detroit) with all possible expedition. Make 
such arrangements for the defense of the country as in your judg- 
ment may be necessary, and wait for further orders." 

This was from the War Department at Washington, and bore 
date June 18th. Eight days previously he had received des- 
patches from the War Department, through a different source, 



General Hull at Detroit. 247 

making no mention of the declaration of war, an oversight on 
the part of the Secretary as inexcusable as it was mysterious. 

General Hull now made haste to march for Detroit, and 
reached the place on the 7th. Here he remained till the 12th, 
when he crossed over to the Canada shore with his whole army, 
and issued a spirited proclamation to the French subjects of 
Great Britain, who lived in the country, many of whom gave in 
their allegiance to his standard. " On to Maiden ! " was now the 
watchword that prevailed in his army, but the extreme caution 
of the commanding General forbade this, especially as his last in- 
structions were to go to Detroit, and wait orders. On the 15th, 
however, orders reached him from Washington to take the of- 
fensive. A reconnoisance of 280 men, under command of Col. 
Cass, was sent towards the place. Five miles from it they en- 
countered an outpost of the enemy guarding a bridge, crossing 
Duck Creek, and here the war of 1812 began in a spirited skirm- 
ish, in which some accounts state that ten Britishers were killed. 
A doubtful assertion that a handful of picket men should have 
left that many dead on the ground before felling back from 
before a surperior force. 

General Isaac Brock was Governor of Upper Canada at this 
time, whose dashing activity proved to be more than a match for 
General Hull's excessive caution. 

As soon as war had been declared, he planned out his campaign, 
and Micbilimacinac was the first place to be attacked. At the 
foot of the rapids of the St. Marys, on the Canadian side, forty- 
five miles north of the place, was the British post of St. Joseph, 
garrisoned by two companies of Canadians and a few British 
regulars. Capt. Roberts, who held command of this post, was 
the one to whom the execution of the scheme had been confided. 
Besides his own entire command, he enlisted in his ranks all the 
loose material which the English Fur Company could bring to his 
service, and in order to insure success beyond a doubt, he ac- 
cepted the service of 600 Indians from his immediate neighbor- 
hood. Everything being in readiness on the 16th of July, his 
forces embarked in their batteaux, crossed the strait, and 
reached the Island of Micbilimacinac before daybreak. The fort 
stood on a bluff rock, on the southeast shore, nearly two hundred 
feet above the sparkling waters that chafed and foamed about its 
base. The original forest with which the island had been cov- 
ered had been cut down for fuel, and in its place a thicket of 
second growth covered the ground. At nine o'clock Lieut. P. 
Hanks, the commander of the fort, beheld with astonishment 
such formidable numbers of British taking position on a rocky 
height, within cannon shot of his fort, while the wooded 
grounds around were alive with Indians. 



2*48 Michilimacinae Taken hy The British. 

The guns of the fort were shotted, and everything made ready 
for a desperate defense by the commanding officer, who all the 
while was at a loss to account for the hostile demonstrations; but 
at half-past eleven o'clock the mystery was explained by a mes- 
sage under a flag of truce. u War had been declared," said the 
unexpected visitor, and the surrender of the fort and island was 
demanded. To defend it would have been a vain attempt, and 
the command was reluctantly complied with, and his entire 
force (57 men), including officers, became war prisoners. The 
village on the island numbered over 300, all but three or four of 
whom were Canadians or half breeds, who felt quite at home under 
a British flag, as well as the countless hordes of Indians, who 
gathered about the place every summer to sell their winter's 
catch of furs, enjoy the salubrious air, and eat the easily caught 
fish. ^ 

Michilimacinae was then regarded as the most important post 
in the northwest, except Detroit. It had an annual export trade 
of furs, amounting to $240,000, and the custom house duties 
on imports were about $50,000 per annum. This successful 
opening of the war, on the part of the British, fired the heart of 
the Indians, and made them flock to the standard of their British 
father. 

Tecumseh was already in the field, elevated to the rank of a 
Brigadier General, and while the master mind of General Brock, 
assisted by the masterly activity of Tecumseh, are circumventing 
the tactics of General Hull, let us turn our attention to Fort 
Dearborn, at Chicago, the outermost post of the Americans. 

Its garrison had been increased by the insignificant reinforce- 
ment of twelve militia, which made in all sixty-six soldiers. The 
original officers in command had retired the year before, and in 
their place stood Captain Heald, who had the chief command, 
and under him was Lieut. Helm, the same who had recently 
married the step-daughter of John Kinzie, Ensign George Konan 
aad Dr. Van Voorhees, the surgeon. The armament of the fort 
consisted of three cannon, and small arms for the soldiers. The 
defenses were quite sufficient to hold the Indians at bay, whose 
mode of warfare was illy adapted to a seige, but in the general 
trepidation which prevailed among the weak garrison, it was pro- 
posed to make the most of every available means in their power, 
in case of an attack, and to this end the agency house outside the 
palisade, was to be manned with a few sharp-shooters, to minister 
to the defenses of the fort. 

Mr. Kinzie, during his eight years' residence in the place, for- 
tunately had won the confidence and esteem of the Indians by 
those rare gifts which transcend the angry passions of war, even 
in the savage breast. And to him all eyes turned for counsel 



Chicago in 1812. 249 

when the war-whoop rang through the wilderness, hacked by the 
power of England. Of his children, the oldest was John H., then 
a lad of eight years, born in Canada, opposite Detroit, but a few 
months before his parents emigrated to Chicago, in 1804. 

He was the first prominent resident of Chicago from infancy. 
Just west of Mr. Kinzie's house was the humble habitation of 
Oulimette, a French laborer in his employ, who like many of 
his countrymen before him, had married an Indian lassie, and 
the union had been blessed with the usual number of children. 
About eighty rods to the west, on the same side of the river, was 
the residence of Mr. Burns, whose family consisted of a wife and 
children. Besides these were a few families of half breeds, " the 
location of whose residences, or perhaps camps, is not known," 
says Mrs. John H. Kinzie, in AYabun. In the fort dwelt the fam- 
ilies of Captain Ileald, ,Lieut. Helm and Sargeant Holt, whose 
wives were destined to become heroines of history, and to their 
number may be added Mrs. Bisson, sister of Oulimette's wife, 
and Mrs. Corbin, wife of a soldier. 

Four miles from Fort Dearborn, up the south branch of the 
Chicago river, lived a Mr. White, as a tenant on a farm known 
by the name of Lee's place. In his employ were three French- 
men, whose business was to sow, plow and reap, depending on a 
Chicago market for a sale of their products. This place, then a 
loneseme habitation, remote from the incipient town, is now the 
center of the din of Chicago machinery for manufacturing the 
wooden luxuries of the age. 

At this time Illinois had been under the forms of a territorial 
government for three years — Xinian Edwards, governor, with 
Kaskaskia the capital. Camp Russell, the present seat of 
Edwardsville, in Madison County, was the northern limits of the 
settled portion of the territory, except Peoria, where a few French 
families lived, over whom he held no jurisdiction, and the Fort 
at Chicago, which was under United States authority. Around 
the latter the Pottowattomies roamed lords of the soil, accord- 
ing to Judge Caton's history of this tribe. 

This was a paper read before the Chicago Historical Society in 
1870, and afterwards published by Fergus, in 1ST6, the data for 
which was received from one of their oldest chiefs. Their hunt- 
ing grounds were limited on the south by Peoria Lake, and on 
the west by Pock Piver. Since the days of the great Pontiac, 
their alliance with his tribe, the Ottawas, had been cemented into 
a chain of friendship strong and enduring ; both had ever been 
active allies of the French since 1673, as appears from contem- 
porary history, and both were unrelenting foes to the English 
during the long and bloody French and Indian war, and Pon- 
tiac's war which followed, a period extending from 1755 to 1764; 



250 The Pottawatomies. 

and when their beloved chief Pontiac was brtsely murdered by an 
Illinois, both of these tribes took summary vengeance on the 
whole Illinois tribe, and at Starved Rock slaughtered the last rem- 
nant of them, except eleven warriors, who fled under cover of 
darkness\to St. Louis. And this was the victory which gave the 
Pottawattomies so much ascendancy in northeastern Illinois.* 

But since the period of French occupation, the fortunes of the 
Indians had been changed. Their loving French brothers had 
been driven out of the country, and the British who drove 
them*out were now their own allies, on whom they depend- 
ed to beat back the advancing hosts of Anglo Americans who 
were rapidly encroaching on their hunting-grounds. The Potto- 
wattomies had not yet felt the weight of their power, but the 
Shawanees had, and through the earnest solicitation of Tecum- 
seh, who with far-seeing vision comprehended the situation, some 
of the Potto wattomies had yielded to his seductive eloquence, 
joined his standard, and fought with the Prophet the year before, 
at the battle of Tippecanoe. Even then Tecumseh had laid his 
plans to destroy Fort Dearborn,f but the defeat of his braves at 
that disastrous conflict, arrested the execution of their plans, until 
the war of 1812 had again revived them on a far grander scale. 

In his erratic wanderings to gain allies for the purpose of driv- 
ing the white settlers east of the Ohio river, he had visited the 
Winnebagoes, of. Rock river, as well as all the other tribes adja- 
cent, and poured out his tales of grief to them against his white 
neighbors. 

While it is not to be presumed that he had won them all over 
to participate in his unrelenting hostility to the Americans, it is 
evident that some of the indiscrete and inflammable material 
among them had been brought to the surface, an instance of 
which was shown one day when some Indians of the Calumet 
had come to Fort Dearborn on business. Seeing Mrs. Ileald and 
Mrs. Helm playing at a game, one of the swarthy visitors, in an 
unguarded moment said to the interpreter, "The white chiefs 
wives are amusing themselves very much ; it will not be long 
before they are hoeing in our cornfields ! " A few weeks latter 
this proved to be more than an idle threat, when, owing to 
Tecuinseh's influence, or some other reason which never can be 
brought to light, the Winnebagoes made a raid on the settlers 
immediately adjacent to Fort Dearborn, which contemplated the 
killing of every one found outside of its palisades. 

Their plan was to begin at the outermost house and kill all as 
they went along. This was Lee's place, and here the work began 

* Caton's Address. 

fBrown's History of Illinois, page 305. 



Indian Bald on Lee's Place. 251 

on the 7th of April. «*It was late in the afternoon when a party 
of ten or twelve Indians entered the house and seated themselves 
with the usual importunity of Indian manners. 

Their appearance, however, aroused the suspicions of the in- 
mates, and two of them, under pretense of feeding the cattle from 
some hay-stacks acioss the river, ferried over in a boat, hut in- 
stead of coming hack as they had promised, betook themselves to 
the skirt of timber which fringed the river, and made all speed 
towards the fort. Ere they had proceeded far, the report of two 
guns confirmed their suspicious against the strange party of 
Indians who had come so suddenly upon them, and they contin- 
ued their flight in breathless haste, until the river opposite the 
house of Burns was reached. The alarm was given by calling 
loudly across to warn the inmates of danger, and the two fugitives 
continued their flight to the fort. Consternation now filled the 
household of Burns. The mother laid on her couch, with her 
babe less than a day old, and Mrs. John Kinzie sat by her side, 
attending to her wants, with the tenderness that mothers can 
best feel on such occasions. But now the appalling news just 
received turned her thoughts away from Mrs. Burns and the 
little nursling beside her, to her own children at home, and she 
flew thither with the speed that terror lent to her limbs. Bush- 
ing in, she cried out, "The Indians! The Indians! killing and 
scalping.'' Mr. Kinzie dropped his violin, with which he was 
amusing the children, and the amateur quadrille in which they 
were engaged, changed into preparations for flight; all rushed 
into two boats, which lay moored on the brink of the river, 
and in a few minutes were safely across, and inside the walls of 
Fort Dearborn. 

Burns' family were not yet rescued, and who would undertake 
the mission, which the terrified messengers had made to appear 
so dangerous'? Ensign Bonan was the man, and leaping into a 
boat, with six soldiers equally brave, pulled up the river to 
Burns', and carried the mother, and her babe on her bed on board, 
and these, with the rest of the family, were soon safely landed 
inside the fort. 

The afternoon previous, a party of seven soldiers had obtained 
leave to row up the south branch to its head waters, for the pur- 
pose of fishing. Xight had now come, but they had not yet re- 
turned. A gun was lired as a signal of danger, hearing which 
the party quit their sport, and pulled silently down the river. 
Arriving at Lee's place, they landed to rescue the inmates. Ap- 
proaching the house by the light of a torch, a dead body was dis- 
covered, beside which laid a faithful dog. With increased haste 
they retreated, and now silently continued their way down the 
stream, and reached the fort at 11 o'clock at night. Early the 



J] 52 Indecision of General Hull. 

next morning scouts were promptly sent to the scene. The dead 
body of the man already discovered, proved to be one of the 
Frenchmen in the employ of Mr. White; his dog still laid by his 
side, in mournful silence ; and but a few paces from it was dis- 
covered the dead body of Mr. White. Both the murdered men 
were taken to the fort, and buried just outside the palisade. Be- 
sides the families from outside the fort, now safely quartered 
within its protection, were some families of half-breeds, 
and a few discharged soldiers. These took refuge in the 
Agency house. For extra protection they planked up the two 
verandas with which the building was furnished (more for comfort 
than elegance), and pierced the outer wall thus made with port- 
holes. 

Inside the fort was an ample store of provisions, among which 
such questionable luxuries as spiritous liquors had not been for- 
gotten, and everything was in readiness for a seige. An order 
was issued to prevent any citizen or soldier from leaving without 
a guard, and a line of pickets was placed around the premises at 
night. In a few nights a small party of Indians were descried 
creeping stealthily through the pasture grounds adjoining the fort, 
1 ike a group of thugs. They were immediately fired upon, not only 
by the patrolmen, but by the sentinel from the block-house, and 
one of their number returned the fire by hurling back his hatchet 
at the patrolman's head. It missed it, however, and spent its 
force against a wheel of a wagon. The next morning the leveled 
grass stained with blood where his victim fell, proved the steady 
aim of the sentinel. Soon afterwards, another visitation was 
made of a similar character, probably for the purpose of stealing 
horses from a stable outside the fort. But instead of finding 
horses, some sheep had taken refuge within its treacherous walls 
and became victims to the rage of the disappointed sneaks. The 
innocent animals were all stabbed as if they had been so many 
hyenas. Scouts were sent in pursuit of the miscreants who per- 
petrated the cruelty, but they could not be overtaken. In a few 
weeks the effect of these alarms passed away, the social circle 
of Ft. Dearborn resumed its composure. The Pottawattomies 
came and went as ever, but under a masked disguise of a friend- 
ship ready to be thrown off at the most opportune occasion. 

Let us now turn our attention again to Detroit, the central 
base of military movements on the upper lakes. Here we find 
General Hull encamped on British soil, across the river opposite 
Detroit, evidently under the painfully contending emotions of 
prudence and activity, with the former in the ascendant. But 
while this fatal paralysis had taken possession of him, the enemy 
were acting with a 23romptness. seldom equaled in military an- 
nals, and, it may with truth be said, a haste which would have 



A Treacherous Armistice. 253 

been fata! to them had not their antagonists ( the Americans ) 
been acting on the other extreme. In default of positive orders 
from the War Department to take the offensive, General Hull 
had at first hesitated to march against Maiden, and when such 
orders came, so much time was consumed in preparation for the 
enterprise, that General Proctor, by order of Sir George Prevost, 
( the Governor-General of Canada ) had reinforced the place with 
an English regiment before General Hull was ready to march 
against it. 

This British reinforcement of Maiden was effected on the 29th 
of July, and while it added to the perplexities of General Hull, 
he still looked for assistance from two different quarters which 
might extricate him from his perils, and place him in an invul- 
nerable position. Governor Meigs, of Ohio, had been ordered 
to send a supply of provisions to him under a military escort, 
commanded by Captain Brush, which was now on its way, but the 
most important assistance which he expected was looked for 
through an attack against the enemy in another quarter, more 
vital to them, and which should divide their force and prevent 
the whole military weight of Canada from concentrating on De- 
troit. For this purpose, General Dearborn had been ordered to 
invade Canada from Niagara, but while on his way thither to 
take command of his army, already on the frontier, at Albany 
he was met by a flag of truce from the Governor-General, borne 
by Colonel Bayes, from Montreal. This messenger was the offi- 
cial bearer of the news that the English had revoked their orders 
in council, which had for years been so obnoxious to American 
commerce, and which had been among the principal causes of the 
war. Under the influence of such a harbinger of peace, an armis- 
tice was proposed.* Unhappily for General Hull and the Ameri- 
can cause, General Dearborn, instead of obeying his orders by 
invading Canada, signed the treacherous truce which relieved 
the English forces of Canada from any apprehensions of danger 
to their Niagara frontier while they were concentrating their 
force against Detroit. While these contingencies were passing, 
so fortunately for the British, General Hull's indecision of pur- 
pose, which, it must be confessed, grew out of the web of diffi- 
culties which encompassed him, had forfeited all confidence in 
him from his army. On the 8th of August he called a council 
of war, in which it was decided to advance against Maiden, but 
news of the fatal armistice followed this decision, sent by a mes- 
senger from General Porter, who held command on the Niagara 
frontier, accompanied with the unpropitious assurance that the 

* It will not be forgotten that this revocation took place five days after the 
American declaration of war, as stated in the foregoing pages. 



254: Hull's Unsuccessful Attempts to Open Communication, 

proposed diversion of the English forces had resulted in a 
failure. 

This dispiriting news prevented him from advancing against 
the objective point, and he retreated to Detroit. Two and a-half 
miles from the present site of Monroe, Michigan, was a thriving 
French village, on the banks of the river Raisin, thirty-six miles 
south of Detroit. The expected convoy of provisions had reached 
this place in safety, but between this point and Detroit, Tecum- 
seh interposed his army of braves, and the commander of the 
convoy, not deeming it prudent to advance with such a numer- 
ous foe in his path, sent a messenger to General Hull for a force 
to open the way. 

On the 4th of August, Major Yan Home, of Colonel Find- 
ley's regiment of Ohio volunteers, was sent on the mission with a 
command or 200 men. At Brown stown, nearly opposite 
Maiden, he fell into an ambuscade and was driven back, with se- 
rious losses. 

On the 9th inst., Colonel Miller was sent on the same danger- 
ous service, with the fourth Ohio regiment and a body of militia, 
in all numbering 600 men. 

Tne fear of an ambuscade along the low and forest-clad grounds 
through which their path lay, caused them to proceed with cau- 
tion, and Captain Snelling was ordered to lead the advance. ~No 
enemy was seen till they had reached the Indian village of Mon- 
guagon, about half the distance to the river Raisin, where from 
behind a breastwork of logs a squad of British and Indians ob- 
structed their path. A sharp and bloody battle immediately 
followed, in which the new American troops fought like veterans, 
and drove the British from the field ; but the Indians, led by 
Tecumseh, though exposed to the terrible fire of the Americans, 
in which their loss had been severe, still hung around the skirts 
of the victorious Americans and made their position dangerous. 
In this emergency, Colonel Miller despatched a messenger back 
to Detroit to obtain provisions for the sustenance of his men, till 
thev could fight their way through the treacherous forest path to 
meet the convoy. The required provisions were at first ordered 
to be sent under command of Colonel Mc Arthur, but a storm 
delayed the departure of the train till. General Hull thought best 
to recall Colonel Miller, rather than reinforce him, and he was 
ordered back to Detroit. 

Arrangements were now made to open communication with the 
expected convoy by a route further to the West, which was less 
exposed to the numerous enemy who hovered around the banks 
of the Detroit river along the road which Colonel Miller had 
passed, and which had frequently exposed his men to the fire of 
the English Yessels which patroled its waters. 



General Brock Demands the Surrender of Detroit. 255 

Colonels Cass and McArtlmr were detailed for this service, on 
the 14th, with 400 picked men. General Brock reached Maiden 
the same day, and immediately taking the offensive, advanced to 
Sandwich, opposite Detroit, and addressed to General Hull the 
following note : 

"Sir: — The power at rny disposal authorizes me to require of you the imme- 
diate surrender of Detroit. It is far from my inclination to join in a war of 
extermination, but you must be aware that the numerous body of Indians who 
have attached themselves to my troops will be beyond my control the moment 
the c> ntest commences. You will find me disposed to enter into such conditions 
as will satisfy the most scrupulous sense of honor. Lieutenant Colonel McDon- 
nell and Major Gregg, are fully authorized to conclude any arrangements that 
may prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood. I have the honor to be your 
obedient servant, 

Isaac Brock, Major General, etc. 

His Excellency, Brigadier General Hull, etc. 

The reply was as follows : 

Head Quarters, Detroit. Aug. 15th, 1812. 

Sir: — I have no other reply to make, than to inform you that I am prepared 
to meet any force which may be at your disposal, and any consequences 
which may result from any exertion of it you may think proper to make. I am, 
etc., William Hull, Brigadier General. 

His Excellency, Major General Brock, etc. 

Says General Hull, in his official account of the attack of De- 
troit and its surrender : " On the 15th, as soon as General Brock 
received my letter, his batteries opened on the town and fort, and 
continued until evening. In the evening, all the British ships of 
war came nearly as far up the river as Sandwich, three miles be- 
low Detroit. At daylight on the 16th, the cannonade recom- 
menced, and in a short time I received information that the 
British army and Indians were landing below the Spring Wells, 
under the cover of their ships of war. At this time, the whole 
effective force at my disposal at Detroit did not exceed 800 men. 
Being new troops and unaccustomed to camp life; having per- 
formed a laborious march ; having been engaged in a number of 
battles and skirmishes, in which many had fallen and more had 
received wounds ; in addition to which a large number being sick 
and unprovided with medicine and the comforts necessary for 
their situation ; are the general causes by which the strength of 
the army was reduced. * * It now became necessary to fight 
the enemy in the field, collect the whole force in the fort, or 
propose terms of capitulation. I could not have carried into the 
field more than 600 men, and left any adequate force in the fort. 
There were landed at that time of the enemy a regular force of 
much more than that number, and twice the number of Indians. 
Considering this great inequality of force, I did not think it 
expedient to adopt the first measure. The second must have 
been attended with a great sacrifice of blood and no possible ad- 
vantage, because the contest could not have been sustained more 



256 Detroit Surrendered, 

than a day for want of power, and bat a few days for want of 
provisions. 

In addition to this, Cols. McArthur and Cass would have been 
in a most hazardous situation. I feared nothing but the last al- 
ternative. I have dared to adopt it I well know the 

high reponsibility of the measure, and I take the whole of it my 
self. It was dictated by a sense of duty and a full conviction 
of its expediency." 

The surrender of the garrison of Detroit, together with the 
town and the entire territory of Michigan, took place on the 16th. 
It forms a humiliating page in American history, for which the 
tardiness in the government in sustaining General Hull was more 
responsible than General Hull himself; albeit, it is but a just 
tribute to English heroism to admit that it had a potent influence 
in the work. That General Hull could have taken Maiden at 
first, and thus saved Detroit, is probable; but in default of this, 
that he could have held Detroit was impossible. No wonder the 
fall of the place stung the American heart, when thousands of 
our old Revolutionary soldiers were yet living, who beheld the 
triumph of English arms with indescribable bitterness. General 
Hull was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be hung. Hap- 
pily for humanity's sake, the President pardoned him. The sen- 
tence appeased the pride of the nation, as well as to help conceal 
the mistakes of the government, till history in its^own destined 
time should vindicate truth, even at the expense of the govern- 
ment. 

Note. — The following is an item from a journal kept by the father of Hon. 
L. W. Claypool, of Morris, 111., who was a soldier in the Ohio ranks at the sur- 
render. It is inserted as a simple statement of the facts which verify tie 
English account of the surrender, as well as Hull's statement. It was furnished 
the author by Hon. Win, Bross, Chicago: 

"Aug. 15 — British began firing opposite Detroit at 6 o'clock. Continued till 
after night. Ended by throwing a few shells. They received heavy firing from 
our side. The day following, at 6 o'clock, renewed the firing. The compli- 
ment was returned. Firing continued three hours. We ceased firing first. 
Sent over a flag of truce. British officers came over. Talked of capitulation, 
well understanding that 1,000 British had crossed at Spring Wells, and that a 
vast number of Indians were back of the Fort (perhaps 1,500). Under consider- 
ation of these facts, surrendered the whole to the British. They took possession 
at 11 o'clock. We gave up our arms at 12 o'clock. In the evening, went on 
board the schooner Nancy. Continued here till the 18th. Sailed to Maiden. Lay 
there till the 20th: 6 in the morning till 12 o'clock. Sailed twenty-three miles. 
Anchored all night. 21st — Wind unfavorable. 22nd, Sunday — Cast anchor at 
Puttaut Bay Island. Weighed anchor at 4 o'clock Sunday. 23d of August — 
Landed at the mouth of Black River. 24th — Marched twenty-seven miles down 
Lake Erie to the Town of Cleveland, Cuyahoga county, O." 




vi r c; 1 X I A 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Fort Dearborn in Danger — Its Evacuation ordered by 
General Hull — Winnemac, the Friendly Messenger — 
Vacillating Policy of Captain Heald, the Commander — 
Inflexibility of Ensign Ronan — John Kinzie, his Wise 
Counsel — Council with the Pottaicattomies — Bad Faith 
of Captain Heald in the Destruction of Arms, etc. — Hon- 
orable Confession of Black Partridge — Arrival of a Heroic 
Friend — The Fort Evacuated — Indian Treachery — Mrs. 
Helm's Graphic Account of the Massacre which followed. 

During the waning fortunes of General Hull at Detroit, ere lie 
had surrendered the place, evidently apprehensive of his fate, 
he determined to send a messenger to Fort Dearborn, at Chicago, 
to apprise them of the situation, and give them timely warning 
to save themselves by retreating to Fort Wayne, if the garrison 
were not in a situation to hold out till succor could come to their 
relief. Winnemac, the Pottowattamie cnief, of whom mention 
has been made in a previous chapter, was in his camp, and to 
him the mission was entrusted. He started from Detroit on the 
28th of July, with an order from General Hull to Captain Heald, 
who held command of Fort Dearborn, and arrived safely at Chi- 
cago on the 7th of August, according to the account given in 
Wabun; but Lanman states that he arrived on the 9th, which ap- 
pears more consistent, as to the time it would take to travel the 
long wilderness path connecting the two places. He brought 
exciting news. War had been declared by the United States 
against Enghnd; Michilimacinac had fallen without resistance, 
and Detroit was closely pressed by the British and their swarthy 
allies. Under these adverse circumstances the evacuation of 
Fort Dearborn was ordered, providing they had not means to de- 
fend it, as the only means of safety left open to the garrison. 
Captain Heald was further instructed to distribute all the goods 
in the fort and agency house among the Indians after leaving the 
post. 

(257) 



258 Captain Ileald Orders the Evacuation of Fort Dearborn. 

Had all these conditions come upon them in their natural rou- 
tine, better preparation could have been made to meet them, but 
the news coming as it did, fell like an avalanch upon the unsus- 
pecting tenants of the fort. To add to their perplexities the 
relations between. the commanding officer and his subordinates, 
particularly Ensign Ronan, was not harmonious. This young 
officer was bold, perhaps an erotic and certainly an out-spoken 
free thinker, regardless of any restraining limit dictated by 
policy or conservatism to the expression of his sentiments. For 
this arid without doubt for other causes, Captain ITeald took no 
council with his subordinate officers as to what was to be done, 
but resolved in his own mind to evacuate- the fort, although this 
decision was against the advice of both Winnemac, who had 
amply proved the sincerity of his friendship, and Mr. Kinzie, 
wmose long and successful career among the Indians entitled his 
opinions to respect. And in vain did both of them exert them- 
selves to dissuade him from the hasty resolution. First, Winne- 
mac had at a private interview with Mr. Kinzie, strongly ad- 
vised that the garrison should shut themselves up in the fort and 
remain till reinforced, but if evacuation was determined on, let 
it be done immediately, before the Indians, through whose coun- 
try they must pass, should become acquainted with the news he 
had brought from Detroit. To this advice Captain Ileald replied, 
that, inasmuch as he had determined to leave the fort, it would be 
necessary to wait till the Indians of the neighborhood could be 
collected to receive an equal distribution of the property ordered to 
be given to them. Winnemae then suggested an immediate evacu- 
tion, with everything left standing, and while the Indians were 
dividing the spoils the garrison might escape. 

This plan was also recommended by Mr. Kinzie, but was re- 
]"ected, and the next morning the order for evacuating the post 
according to the original plan of Captain Ileald, was read at the 
roll call. The impolicy of this plan being apparent to the sub- 
ordinate officers, in the course of the day they sought an inter- 
view with Captain Ileald to remonstrate against it. They rep- 
resented to him the frail tenure by which the treacherous chain 
of friendship now bound the Indians to the American interest. 
That good-will towards the family of Mr. Kinzie was its only 
hold, and it was not to be expected that the few chiefs who showed 
this feeling towards this one household would be able to restrain 
the turbulent passions of the whole tribe when the war whoop 
was once raised. That their retreat must be slow, incumbered 
as it w T ould be with women, children and invalids. That succor 
might arrive before an attack could be made from the British 
who had just taken Michilimackinac, but if not it were far bet- 
ter to fall' in to their hands than expose themselves to the fury of 



Counsel with the Pottawattomies. 259 

the savages. To these suggestions Captain Heald replied that a 
special order had been issued from the War Department that no 
post should be surrendered without a battle, and his force was 
inadequate for this and that he should be censured for remaining 
when a prospect for a safe retreat appeared probable, to insure 
which he proposed, after distributing the goods to the Indians, to 
promise them further reward for escorting his command safely to 
Fort Wayne. From this time the under officers, seeing the im- 
possibility of changing his purposes, remained silent on the sub- 
ject, but Mr. Kinzie was still persistent, and while conversing 
with him one day on the parade-ground, on the subject, Captain 
Heald, in reply to his arguments, said, " I could not remain if I 
thought best, for I have but a small store of provisions." " Why, 
Captain," said an impulsive soldier, "you have cattle enough to 
last six months." To this the unoffended Captain replied, " I 
have no salt to preserve the meat." "Then jerk it, as the Indi- 
ans do their venison," continued the persistant soldier.* As the 
weary days advanced, the Indians assumed an air of insolence 
quite inconsistent with the spirit of friendship. Impertinent 
squaws cast malignant glances at the fort, as they thronged 
around its gates as if a jubilee was about to reward their watch- 
ing, and uncouth warriors sometimes pressed through the gates, 
heedless of the sentinel's protest, and once a gun was discharged 
in the ladies' parlor by one of these unwelcome visitors. 

On the 12th a council was held with the Pottawattomies who 
had by this time assembled in considerable numbers around the 
fort. The conference took place on the parade-ground just out- 
side the palisades. Captain Heald laid aside his prejudices and 
invited all the officers of the fort to take part in its deliberations, 
but they had lost all faith in the pretensions of the Indians and 
declined. Moreover, they had been informed that it was to be 
made the occasion of a massacre of the officers, the truth of 
which rumor was strengthened by perhaps well-grounded suspi- 
cions. Under these apprehensions they betook themselves to 
the block-house where the cannon were shotted ready for any 
hostile demonstration which might show itself. Captain Heald, 
however, with undiminished faith in the Indians, accompanied 
by Mr. Kinzie, convened the council. At its sitting the Indians 
were informed of his plans to withdraw from the fort, and were 
promised the gift of all the goods, not only in the fort itself but 
of those in the agency house, including the ammunition and 
provisions. The Pottawattomies on their part promised an es- 
cort to conduct them safely to Ft. "Wayne, for which they were 

* As beef or venison was preserved by drying and smoking-, in the early 
day, which process was called jerking-.— [Author. 



260 Destruction of Arms, Etc. 

to receive a liberal reward on the spot and an additional one on 
their arrival at the place. Thus closed the council with apparent 
good-will and confidence on the part of Captain Heald, not 
shared by his junior officers or soldiers. As already stated, 
Winnemac had brought to the garrison the news of the fall of 
Michilimanackinac, but from prudential motives the Indians 
w r ere not informed of it. This attempt at concealment, however, 
was unavailing, for Tecumseh had sent a messenger to them to 
secure their co-operation in the general warfare which he was 
waging against the Americans as a British ally, by telling them 
the news so auspicious to their cause. No sooner had the coun- 
cil closed and the chiefs withdrawn than Mr. Kinzie, alarmed at 
its impolitic terms, protested against furnishing the Indians 
arms, which would probably be used against themselves, and 
Captain Heald, himself, for the first time awakened to a sense 
of surrounding danger, determined to destroy all the arms and 
ammunition not wanted for his own use, instead of giving it to 
the Indians, as stipulated in the council. 

The next day the goods were distributed, all but the ammuni- 
t'on, arms, and the liquors, of which there was a plentiful store. 
The Indians were far from being satisfied. The things they 
most coveted were still withheld and at night they hung about 
the premises, crawling prostrate through the tall grass, where- 
ever it afforded concealment within hearing of what was going 
on at the fort. When night came, their serpentine toil was re- 
warded with a full discovery of what they had suspected. With 
indignation they beheld the destruction of the muskets, the frag- 
ments of which, together with powder, shot, flints and gun 
screws were thrown into a well at the extremity of the sally 
port. Next came the casks of liquor. These were rolled to the 
bank of the river, the heads knocked in and the contents given 
to intoxicate the fishes. The Indians, however, got a taste of 
the precious nectar which, diluted as it was, they sipped from 
the surface of the water, under cover of night, while drinking 
which they declared that the whole river tasted like strong grog. 
However agreeable such a spoliation might be to modern apostles 
of temperance, it was offensive to the Indians to the last degree. 
Aside from such a waste of property, they looked upon it as a 
piece of treachery on the part of Captain Heald, which had de- 
prived them of the most essential part of the promised gifts. 
This last act was the most fatal error yet committed, as it com- 
promised all the good-fellowship that existed between the In- 
dians and the garrison, on which alone Captain Heald had based 
a frail hope of security. 

Up to this time the leading chiefs of the Pottawattomies (it is 
fair to infer) felt their ability to restrain the war spirit among 






Captain, Wells. 261 

the young braves who longed for a chance to achieve notoriety by 
ornamenting their belts with the scalp of an enemy, and were 
as unscrupulous as to the means employed to obtain it as some 
of our modern politicians are as to the issues that party strife 
thrusts into the arena of what should be the policy of the na- 
tion. 

Black Partridge was conspicuous among the friendly and con- 
siderate chiefs but after the destruction of the arms/etc, feeling 
that he could no longer restrain the war spirit of his people, he 
entered the quarters of Captain Heald with deep dejection. 
" Father," said the high-minded chief, " I come to deliver up to 
you the medal I wear. It was given me by the Americans, and 
I have long worn it in token of our mutual friendship, but our 
young men are resolved to imbrue their hands in the blood of 
the whites. I cannot restrain them, and I will not wear a token 
of peace while I am compelled to act as an enemy." Whatever 
effect this startling disclosure produced on the minds t>f the gar- 
rison, it was now tuo late to make any change in their plans, for 
nothing was left on whichjto subsist or with which to defend 
themselves, as only twenty-five rounds of ammunition to the 
man and one extra box of cartridges had been reserved from the 
general distribution. This was the situation on the night of the 
13th when the devoted garrison returned to rest, perhaps for the 
last time. While this suspense was continuing at the fort, suc- 
cor was on the way to them. The wife of Captain Heald was 
the daughter of Colonel Samuel "Wells, of Kentucky, whose 
brother (afterwards Captain William Wayne Wells) when thir- 
teen years old had been taken captive by the Indians, in one of 
the border skirmishes, which was a frequent occurrence in those 
early times.* He was adopted into the family of Little Turtle 
and bred in the lofty virtues of which that distinguished chief 
was so able an exponent. 

At the defeat of St. Clair, Mr. Wells had been in the front 
and maintained the position till a wall of dead bodies of the 
American artillery men shielded him from the tempest of bullets 
which assailed his men. Notwithstanding he had won laurels 
with the people of his adoption whom he had thus far success- 
fully defended, in his reflective moments he clearly foresaw their 
declining fortunes and resolved to abandon them to a fate from 
which it was impossible to extricate them. As might be sup- 
posed this resolution filled his heart with contending emotions, 
painful beyond the power of but few to conceive. On the one 
hand were the associations which had gathered around his ma- 
turing years, perhaps all the more tender because hardships and 

* See Western Annals, p. 615. 



262 His Arrival at Fort Dearborn. 

toil had been ever present with them. On the other, was his am- 
bition to cast his lot among his own people, who alone could ele- 
vate him to a position that his talents deserved. But as treach- 
ery with him was impossible, he plainly told his adopted father, 
Little Turtle, his intentions, and with much pathos bade him 
good-bye, as he left him and allied himself to the army of Gen- 
eral Wayne, in 1794. With him he fought during the campaign 
and after the peace which followed it, he again joined Little 
Turtle, who now fully shared his sentiments, and both went to 
Philadelphia together, in 1798, to take measures to bring civili- 
zation to their race. Here the celebrated traveler, Mr. Yolney, 
met Mr. Wells, and has left an interesting record of the inter- 
view.* He was also received with marked respect by the Qua- 
kers at the place, who never lost an opportunity to extend the 
open hand to help the Indian race. He then returned to Fort 
Wayne, where he remained till the war of 1812.f The war 
whoop was* now again ringing through the forest, and he was 
once more thrust into its theatre. Rumors of the disaffection of 
the Pottawattomies, who hung around Fort Dearborn, reached 
him, and he promptly flew to the defense of his friends at the 
place, one of whom (Mrs. Heald) was his blood relation. 

He arrived there on the 14th. and found things in a desperate 
condition. 

It was too late to defend the fort, and the only resource left 
was to retreat in the lace of a savage foe, dangerous from their 
numbers at best, but now irritated by the destruction of the 
arms and liquors which had been promised to them. Hope re- 
vived in the hearts of the devoted garrison when he, at the head 
of 15 Miamis, entered the walls of the fort, and consoled by this 
small reinforcement, all but the sentinels retired to rest. 

"The morning of the 15th arrived. All things were in readi- 
ness, and nine o'clock was the hour named for starting. 

Mr. Kinzie had volunteered to accompany the troops in their 
march, and had entrusted his family to the care of some friendly 
Indians, who had promised to convey them in a boat around the 
head of Lake Michigan to a pointy on the St. Joseph's river; 
there to be joined by the troops, should the prosecution of their 
march be permitted them. 

Early in the morning Mr. Kinzie received a message from 
To-pee-nee-bee, a chief of the St. Joseph's band, informing him 
that mischief was intended by the Pottowattamies who had en- 

* Volney's View, p. 357. 

f Whiting's Historical Discourses, delivered at Detroit, 1832. 
\ The spot now called Bertrand, then known as Pare aux Vetches, from its 
having been a pasture ground to an old French fort in the neighborhood. 






The Attack Begins. 263 

gaged to escort the detachment; and urging him to relinquish 
his design of accompanying the troops by land, promising him 
that the boat containing himself and family should be permitted 
to pass in safety to St. Joseph's. 

Mr. Kinzie declined acceding to this proposal, as he believed 
that his presence might operate as a restraint upon the fury of 
the savages, so warmly were the greater part of them attached 
to himself and his family. 

The party in the boat consisted of Mrs. Kinzie and her four 
younger children, their nurse Grutte,* a clerk of Mr. Kinzie's, 
two servants and the boatmen, besides the two Indians who 
acted as their protectors. The boat started, but had scarcely 
reached the mouth of the river, which, it will be recollected was 
iiere half a mile below the fort, when another messenger from 
To -fee-nee-bee arrived to detain them where they were. 

In breathless expectation sat the wife and mother. She was a 
woman of uncommon energy and strength of character, yet her 
heart died within her as she folded her arms around her helpless 
infants, and gazed upon the march of her husband and eldest 
child to certain destruction. 

As the troops left the fort, the band struck up the Dead March. 
On they came in military array, but with solemn mien. Cap- 
tain Wells took the lead at the head of his little band of Miamis. 
He had blackened his face before leaving the garrison, in token 
of his impending fate. They took their route along the lake 
shore. When they reached the point where commenced a range 
of sand hills intervening between the prairie and the beach, the 
escort of Potto wattamies, in number about five hundred, kept 
the level of the prairie, instead of continuing along the beach 
with the Americans and Miamis. 

They had marched perhaps a mile and a half, when Captain 
Wells, who had kept somewhat in advance with his Miamis, 
came riding furiously back. "They are about to attack us," 
shouted he; "form instantly, and charge upon them." 

Scarcely were the words uttered, when a volley was showered 
from among the sand-hills. The troops were hastily brought 
into line, and charged up the bank. One man, a veteran of 
seventy winters, fell as they ascended. The remainder of the 
scene is best described in the words of an eye-witness and par- 
ticipator in the tragedy, Mrs. Helm, the w r iie of Captain (then 
Lieutenant) Helm, and step-daughter of Mr. Kinzie: 

"After we had left the bank the tiring became general. The 
Miamis fled at the outset. Their chief rode up to the Potto wat- 
tamies and said: 

* Afterwards Mrs. Jean Baptiste Beaubien. 



264: Rescue of Mrs. Helm, 

" ' You have deceived the Americans and us. You have done 
a bad action, and (brandishing his tomahawk) I will be the first 
to head a party of Americans to return and punish your treach- 
ery.' So saying he galloped after his companions, who were 
now scouring across the prairies. 

" The troops behaved most gallantly. They were but a hand- 
ful, but they seemed resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possi- 
ble. Our horses pranced and bounded, and could hardly be re- 
strained as the balls whistled among them. I drew off a little, 
and gazed upon my husband and father, who were yet unharmed. 
I felt that my hour was come, and endeavored to forget those I 
loved, and prepare myself for my approaching fate. 

" While I was thus engaged, the surgeon, Dr. Van Voorhees, 
came up. He was badly wounded. His horse had been shot 
under him, and he had received a ball in his leg. Every muscle 
of his face was quivering with the agony of terror. He said to 
me — 'Do you think they will take our lives? I am badly 
wounded, but I think not mortally. Perhaps we might purchase 
our lives by promising them a large reward. Do you think there 
is any chance?' 

" ' Dr. Van Voorhees,' said I, i do not let us waste the few mo- 
ments that yet remain to us in such vain hopes. Our fate is 
inevitable. In a few moments we must appear before the bar of 
God. Let us make what preparation is yet in our power.' 

u 'Oh! I cannot die,' exclaimed he, 'I am not fit to die — if I 
had but a short time to prepare — death is awful!' 

*' I pointed to Ensign Ronan, who though mortally wounded 
and nearly down, was still fighting with desperation on one 
knee. 

" ' Look at that man,' said I, 6 at least he dies like a soldier.' 

" ' Yes,' replied the unfortunate man, with a convulsive gasp, 
' but he has no terrors of the future — he is an unbeliever!' 

" At this moment a young Indian raised his tomahawk at me. 
By springing aside, I avoided the blow which was intended for 
my skull, but which alighted on my shoulder. I seized him 
around the neck, and while exerting my utmost efforts to get 
possession of his scalping-knife, which hung in a scabbard over 
his breast, I was dragged from his grasp by another and an 
older Indian. 

u The latter bore me struggling and resisting towards the lake. 
Notwithstanding the rapidity with which I was hurried along, I 
recognized as I passed them the lifeless remains of the unfortu- 
nate surgeon. Some murderous tomahawk had stretched him 
upon the very spot where I had last seen him. 

"I was immediately plunged into the water and held there 
with a forcible hand, notwithstanding my resistance. I soon 



Black Partridge the Rescuer. 265 

perceived, however, that the object of my captor was not to 
drown me, for he held me firmly in such a position as to place 
my head above water. This reassured me, and regarding him 
attentively, I soon recognized, in spite of the paint with which 
he was disguised, The Blade Partridge. 

" When the firing had nearly subsided, my preserver bore me 
from the water and conducted me up the sand-banks. It was a 
burning August morning, and walking through the sand in my 
drenched condition was inexpressibly painful and fatiguing. I 
stooped and took off my shoes to free them from the sand with 
which they were nearly filled, when a squaw seized and carried 
them off, and I was obliged to proceed without them. 

" When we had gained the prairie, I was met by my father, 
who told me that my husband was safe and but slightly wounded. 
They led me gently back towards the Chicago River, along the 
southern bank of which was the Pottowattamie encampment. 
At one time I was placed upon a horse without a saddle, but 
finding the motion insupportable, I sprang off. Supported 
partly by my kind conductor, Black Partridge, and partly by 
another Indian, Pee-so-tum, who held dangling in his hand a 
scalp, which by the black ribbon around the queue I recognized 
as that of Capt. Wells, I dragged my fainting steps to one of 
the wigwams. 

"The wife of Wau-bee-nee-mah, a chief from the Illinois 
River, was standing near, and seeing my exhausted condition she 
seized a kettle, dipped up some water from a stream that flowed 
near,* threw into it some maple sugar, and stirring it up with 
her hand gave it me to drink. This act of kindness, in the 
midst of so many horrors, touched me most sensibly, but my 
attention was soon diverted to other objects. 

"The fort had become a scene of plunder to such as remained 
after the troops marched out. The cattle had been shot down as 
they ran at large, and lay dead or dying around. This work of 
butchery had commenced just as we were leaving the fort. I 
well remembered a remark of Ensign Ron an, as the firing went 
on. ' Such,' turning to me, 'is to be our fate — to be shot down 
like brutes P 

" Well, sir,' said the Commanding Officer, who overheard him, 
' are you afraid ? ' 

" 'No,' replied the high spirited young man, ' I can march up 
to the enemy where you dare not show your face; ' and his sub- 
sequent gallant behavior showed this to be no idle boast. 

" As the noise of the firing grew gradually less and the strag- 
glers irom the victorious party came dropping in, I received con- 

*Just by the present State street Market. 



266 Heroism of Captain Wells. 

firmation of what my father had hurriedly communicated in our 
rencontre on the lake shore; namely, that the whites had sur- 
rendered after the loss of about two-thirds of their number. 
They had stipulated, through the interpreter, Peresh Leclerc, for 
the preservation of their lives, and those of the remaining 
women and children, and for their delivery at some of the 
British posts, unless ransomed by traders in the Indian country. 
It appears that the wounded prisoners were not considered as in- 
cluded in the stipulation, and a horrible scene ensued upon their 
being brought into camp. 

" An old squaw, infuriated by the loss of friends, or excited by 
the sanguinary scenes around her, seemed possessed by a demo- 
niac ferocity. She seized a stable-fork and assaulted one, misera- 
ble victim, who lay groaning and writhing in the agony of his 
wounds, aggravated by the scorching beams of the sun. With a 
delicacy of feeling scarcely to have been expected under such 
circumstances, "Wau-bee-nee-mah stretched a mat across two 
poles, between me and this dreadful scene. I was thus spared in 
some degree a view of its horrors, although I could not entirely 
close my ears to the cries of the sufferer. The following night 
live more of the wounded prisoners were tomahawked. 

" The Americans after their first attack by the Indians, charged 
upon those who had concealed themselves in a sort of ravine, in- 
tervening between the sand banks and the prairie. The latter 
gathered themselves into a body, and after some hard fighting, 
in which the number of whites had become reduced to twenty- 
eight, this little band succeeded in breaking through the enemy, 
and gained a rising ground, not far from the Oak Woods. The 
contest now seemed hopeless, and Lt. Helm sent Peresh Leclerc, 
a half-breed boy in the service of Mr. Kinzie, who had accom- 
panied the detachment and fought manfully on their side, to 
propose terms of capitulation. It was stipulated that the lives 
of all the survivors shoirid be spared, and a ransom permitted as 
soon as practicable. 

"But, in the mean time, a horrible scene had been enacted. 
One young savage, climbing into the baggage-w T agon containing 
the children of the white families, twelve in number, toma- 
nawked the children of the entire group. This was during the 
engagement near the Sand-hills. When Captain Wells, who was 
fighting near, beheld it, he exclaimed: 

"'Is that their game, butchering the women and children? 
Then I will kill too!' 

"So saying, he turned his horse's head, and started for the In- 
dian camp, near the fort, where had been left their squaws and 
children. 

"Several Indians pursued him as he galloped along. He laid 



Bravery of Mrs. Corlin and Mrs. Molt. 267 

himself flat on the neck of his horse, loading and firing in that 
position, as he would occasionally turn on his pursuers. At 
length their balls took effect, killing his horse, and severely 
wounding himself. At this moment he was met by Winnemeg* 
and Wau-han-see, who endeavored to save him from the savages 
who had now overtaken him. As they supported him along, 
after having disengaged him from his horse, he received his 
death-blow from another Indian, Pee-so-tum, who stabbed him 
in the back.f 

"The heroic resolution of one of the soldier's wives deserves 
to be recorded. She was a Mrs. Corbin, and had, from the first, 
expressed the determination never to fall into the hands of the 
savages, believing that their prisoners were always subjected to 
tortures worse than death. 

""When, therefore, a party came upon her, to make her a pris- 
oner, she fought with desperation, refusing to surrender, although 
assured, by signs, of safety and kind treatment, and literally 
suffered herself to be cut to pieces, rather than become their 
captive. 

, " There was a Sergeant Holt, who, early in the engagement, re- 
ceived a ball in the neck. Finding himself badly wounded, he 
gave his sword to his wife, who was on horseback near him, 
telling her to defend herself — he then made for the lake, to keep 
out of the way of the balls. Mrs. Holt rode a very fine horse, 
which the Indians were desirous of possessing, and they there- 
fore attacked her, in hopes of dismounting her. 

"They fought only with the butt-ends of their guns, for their 
object was not to kill her. She hacked and hewed at their pieces 
as they were thrust against her, now on this side, now on that. 
Finally, she broke loose from them, and dashed out into the 
prairie. The Indians pursued her, shouting and laughing, and 
now and then calling out : 



4; ' The brave woman ! do not hurt her ! ' 



"At length they overtook her again, and while she was en- 
gaged with two or three in front, one succeeded in seizing her 
by the neck behind, and dragging her, although a large and 
powerful woman, from her horse. Xotwithstandi ng that their 
guns had been so hacked and injured; and even themselves cut 
severely, they seemed to regard her only with admiration. They 

* Winneniac (sometimes spelled with a ' g ' as a final letter.) — [Author. 

t Captain Wells 1 heart was afterwards taken out. cut in pieces and distrib- 
uted among the tribes. After being scalped, his remains were left unburied, as 
were also those of the children massacred, and the soldiers and women slain in 
battle. Bill}- Caldwell, an Indian chief, the next day finding the head of Cap- 
tain Wells in one place and his body in another, caused a hole to be dug in the 
sand and his remains to be interred. — Brown's Illinois. 



268 Mrs. Healcl Again Rescued. 

took lier to a trader on the Illinois River, by whom she was re- 
stored to her friends, after having received every kindness during 
her captivity.' 5 * 

"Those of the family of Mr. Kinzie, who had remained in the 
boat, near the mouth of the river, were carefully guarded by 
Kee-po-tah and another Indian. They had seen the smoke — 
then the blaze — and immediately after the report of the first tre- 
mendous discharge sounded in their ears. Then all was confu- 
sion. They realized nothing until they saw an Indian come 
towards them from the battle-ground, leading a horse on which 
sat a lady, apparently wounded. 

" < That is Mrs. Heald,' cried Mrs. Kinzie. < That Indian will 
kill her. Hun, Chandonnai,' to one of Mr. Kinzie's clerks, 'take 
the mule that is tied there, and oifer it to him to release her.' 

" Her captor, by this time, was in the act of disengaging her 
bonnet from her head, in order to scalp her. Chandonnai ran 
up, offered the mule as a ransom, with the promise of ten bottles 
of whisky, as soon as they should reach his village. The latter 
was a strong temptation. 

" 'But,' said the Indian, she is badly wounded — she will die. 
"Will you give me the whiskey, at all events ? ' 

"Chandonnai promised that he would, and the bargain was 
concluded. The savage placed the lady's bonnet on his own head, 
and after an ineffectual effort on the part of some squaws to rob 
her of her shoes and stockings, she was brought on board the 
boat, where she lay moaning with pain from the many bullet 
wounds she had received in both arms. 

"The horse she had ridden was a fine spirited animal, and, 
being desirous of possessing themselves of it uninjured, the In- 
dians had aimed their shots so as to disable the rider, without 
injuring her steed. 

" She had not lain long in the boat, when a young Indian of 
savage aspect was seen approaching. A buffalo robe was hastily 
drawn over Mrs. Heald, and she was admonished to suppress 
all sound of complaint, as she valued her life. 

" The heroic woman remained perfectly silent, while the savage 
drew near. He had a pistol in his hand, which he rested on the 
side of the boat, while, with a fearful scowl, he looked pryingly 
around. Black Jim, one of the servants who stood in the bow of 
the boat, seized an axe that lay near, and signed to him that 
if he shot, he would cleave his skull;- telling him that the 
boat contained only the family of Shaw-nee-avj-kee.-f Upon this 
the Indian retired. It afterward appeared that the object of his 

*Mrs. Holt is believed to be still living" in the State of Ohio, 
f The Indian name for Mr. Kinzie — [Author. 



New Dangers Averted. 269 

search was Mr. Burnett, a trader from St. Joseph's, with whom 
he had some account to settle. 

" When the boat was at length permitted to return to the 
mansion of Mr. Kinzie, and Mrs. Heald was removed to the 
house, it became necessary to dress her wounds. 

" Mr. K. applied to an old chief who stood by, and who, like 
most of his tribe, possessed some skill in surgery, to extract a 
ball from the arm ofthe sufferer. 

" ' ISTo, father,' replied he. ' I cannot do it — it makes me sick 
here' — (placing his hand on his heart). 

" Mr. Kinzie then performed the operation himself with his 
penknife. 

" At their own mansion the family of Mr. Kinzie were closely 
guarded by their Indian friends, whose intention it was, to carry 
them to Detroit for security. The rest of the prisoners remained 
at the wigwams of their captors. 

u The following morning the work of plunder being completed, 
the Indians set fire to the fort. A very equitable distribution of 
the finery appeared to have been made, and shawls, ribbons, and 
feathers fluttered about in all directions. The ludicrous appear- 
ance of one young fellow who had arrayed himself in a muslin 
gown, and the bonnet of one of the ladies, would, under other 
circumstances, have afforded matter of amusement. 

t; Black Partridge, "Wau-ban-see and Kee-po-tah, with two 
other Indians, having established themselves in the porch of the 
building as sentinels, to protect the family from any evil that the 
young men might be excited to commit, all remained tranquil 
for a short space after the conflagration. 

"Very soon, however, a party of Indians from the Wabash 
made their appearance. These were, decidedly, the most hostile 
and implacable of all the tribes of the Pottowattamies. 

" Being more remote, they had shared less than some of their 
brethren in the kindness of Mr. Kinzie and his family, and con- 
sequently their sentiments of regard for them were less power- 
ful. 

" Runners had been sent to the villages to apprize them of 
the intended evacuation of the post, as well as of the plan ofthe 
Indians assembled to attack the troops. 

u Thirsting to participate in such a scene they hurried on, and 
great was their mortification on arriving at the river Aux Plains, 
to meet with a party of their friends having with them their 
chief ]STee-scot-nee-meg, badly wounded, and to learn that the 
battle was over, the spoils divided, and the scalps all taken. 

" On arriving at Chicago they blackened their faces, and pro- 
ceeded towards the dwelling of Mr. Kinzie. 

" From his station on the piazza Black Partridge had watched 



270 Continued Fidelity of Black Partridge. 

their approach, and his fears were particularly awakened for the 
safety of Mrs. Helm (Mr. Kinzie's step-daughter), who had re- 
cently come to the post, and was personally unknown to the 
more remote Indians. By his advice she was made to assume 
the ordinary dress of a French woman of the country; namely, 
a short gown and petticoat, with a blue cotton handkerchief 
wrapped around her head In this disguise she was conducted 
by Black Partridge himself to the house of Ouilmette, a French- 
man with a half-breed wife, who formed a part of the establish- 
ment of Mr. Kinzie, and whose dwelling was close at hand. 

"It so happened that the Indians came first to this house, in 
their search for prisoners. As they approached, the inmates, 
fearful that the fair complexion and general appearance of Mrs. 
Helm might betray her for an American, raised a large feather- 
bed and placed her under the edge of it, upon the bedstead, with 
her face to the wall. Mrs. Bisson, the sister of Ouilmette's wife, 
then seated herself with her sewing upon the front of the bed. 

" It was a hot day in August, and the feverish excitement of 
fear and agitation, together with her position, which was nearly 
suffocating, became so intolerable, that Mrs. Helm at length en- 
treated to be released and given up to the Indians. 

" 'I can but die,' said she; 'let them put an end to my misery 
at once.' 

" Mrs. Bisson replied, < Your death would be the destruction 
of us all, for Black Partridge has resolved that if one drop of the 
blood of your family is spilled, he will take the lives of all con- 
cerned in it, even his nearest friends, and if once the work of 
murder commences, there will be no end of it, so long as there 
remains one white person, or half breed, in the country.' 

" This expostulation nerved Mrs. Helm with fresh resolution. 

"The Indians entered, and she could occasionally see them 
from her hiding-place, gliding about, and stealthily inspecting 
every part of the room, though without making any ostensible 
search, until apparently satisfied that there was no one concealed, 
they left the house. 

"All this time Mrs. Bisson had kept her seat upon the side of 
the bed, calmly sorting and arranging the patchwork of the 
quilt on which she was engaged, and preserving an appearance 
of the utmost tranquility, although she knew not but that the 
next moment she might receive a tomahawk in her brain. Her 
self-command unquestionably saved the lives of all present. 

"From Ouilmette's house the party of Indians proceeded to 
the dwelling of Mr. Kinzie. They entered the parlor in which 
the family were assembled with their faithful protectors, and 
seated themselves upon the floor in silence. 

"Black Partridge perceived from their moody and revengeful 






The Sau-ga-nash to The Rescue. 271 

looks what was passing in their minds, but he dared not remon- 
strate with them. He only observed in a low tone to Wan-ban- 
see — 

" 'We have endeavored to save our friends, but it is in vain — 
nothing will save them now.' 

" At this moment a friendly wdioop was heard from a party of 
new comers on the opposite bank of the river. Black Partridge 
sprang to meet their leader, as the canoes in which they had has- 
tily embarked touched the bank near the house. 

" ' Who are you?' demanded he. 

"' A man — who are you?* 

" ' A man like yourself, but tell me who you are ' — meaning, 
tell me your disposition, and which side you are for. 

" ' I am the Sau-ga-nash /' 

" ' Then make all speed to the house — your friend is in dan- 
ger, and you alone can save him.' 

"Billy Caldwell* for it was he, entered the parlor with a 
calm step, and without a trace of agitation in his manner. He 
deliberately "took off his accoutrements and placed them with his 
rifle behind the door; then saluted the hostile savages. 

" ' How now, my friends ! A good day to you. I was told 
there were enemies here, but I am glad to find only friends. 
Why have you blackened your faces % Js it that you are mourn- 
ing for the friends you have lost in battle V (purposely misunder- 
standing this token of evil designs). l Or is it that you are fast- 
ing? If so, ask our friend here, and he will give you to eat. 
He is the Indian's friend, and never yet refused them what they 
had need of 

"Thus taken by surprise, the savages were ashamed to ac- 
knowledge their bloody purpose. They, therefore said modestly 
that they came to beg of their friends some white cotton in which 
to wrap their dead, before interring them. This was given to 
them with some other presents, and they took their departure 
peaceably from the premises. 

" Along with Mr. Kinzie's party was a non-commissioned ofh- 

* Billy Caldwell was a half breed, and a chief of the ration. In his reply, 
"lam a San-ga-nash," or Englishman, he designed to convey, ''1 am a white 
man."' 1 Had he said, "lam a FottoicottcoHip," it would have been interpreted 
to mean, "I belong to my nation, and am prepared to go all lengths with 
tnein. 11 — Wcrnbun. 

Billy Caldwell, who died bnt a short time since, was familiary known to 
many of our citizens in Chicago. His presence of mind unquestionably saved 
his friends from massacre. He was a naif or quarter breed. His father was 
an officer in the British army: his mother a Wyandot woman; he was well 
educated in Montreal before he came hither. Previous to the War of 1812 he 
was received and adopted as a chief among them — and called the Sau-ga-nash. 
— Browns III., published in 1S44. 



272 The Kinzie Family Sent to Detroit. 

cer who had made his escape in a singular manner. As the 
troops were about leaving the fort it was found that the baggage- 
horses of the surgeon had strayed off. The quarter- master-ser- 
geant, Griffith, was sent to collect them and bring them on, it 
being absolutely necessary to recover them, since their packs 
contained part of the surgeon's apparatus, and the medicines for 
the march. 

" This man had been for a long time on the sick report, and 
for this reason was given the charge of the baggage, instead of 
being placed with the troops. His efforts to recover the horses 
being unsuccessful, he was hastening to rejoin his party; alarmed 
at some appearances of disorder and hostile indications among 
the Indians, when he was met and made prisoner by To-pee- 
nee-bee. 

" Having taken from him his arms and accoutrements, the 
chief put him into a canoe and paddled him across the river, 
bidding him make for the woods and secrete himself. This he 
did, and the following day, in the afternoon, seeing from his 
lurking-place that all appeared quiet, he ventured, to steal cau- 
tiously into the garden of Ouilmette, where he concealed himself 
for a time behind some currant-bushes. 

" At length he determined to enter the house, and accordingly 
climbed up through a small back window, into the room where 
the family were. This was just as the Wabash Indians left the 
house of Ouilmette for that of Mr. Kinzie. The danger of the 
sergeant was now imminent. The family stripped him of his 
uniform and arrayed him in a suit of deer-skin, with belt, mocca- 
sins, and pipe, like a French engage. His dark complexion and 
large black whiskers favored the disguise. The family were all 
ordered to address him in French, and although utterly ignorant 
of the language he continued to pass for a Ween-tee-gosh,* and 
as such to accompany Mr. Kinzie and his family,' undetected 
by his enemies until they reached a place of safety. 

"On the third day alter the battle, the family of Mr. Kinzie, 
with the clerks of the establishment, were put into a boat, under 
the care of Francois, a half-breed interpreter, and conveyed to 
St. Joseph's, where they remained until the following November, 
under the protection of To-pee-nee-oee *s band. They were then 
conducted to Detroit, under the escort of Chandonnai and their 
trusty Indian friend, Ke-po-tah, and delivered up as prisoners 
of war, to Col. McKee, the British Indian Agent. 

"Mr. Kinzie was not allowed to leave St. Joseph's with his 
family, his Indian friends insisting on his remaining and en- 
deavoring to secure some remnant of his scattered property. 

, * Frenchman. 



Hospitality of Alexander Robinson. 273 

During Lis excursions with them for that purpose, he wore the 
costume and paint of the tribe, in order to escape capture and 
perhaps death at the hands of those who were still thirsting for 
blood. In time, however, his anxiety for his family induced him 
to follow them to Detroit, where, in the month of January, he 
was received and paroled by Gen. Proctor. 

" Capt. and Mrs. Heald had been sent across the lake to St. 
Joseph's the clay after the battle. The former had received two 
wounds, the latter seven in the engagement. 

"Lieut. Helm, who was likewise wounded, was carried by 
some friendly Indians to their village on the Au Sable, and 
thence to Peoria, where he was liberated by the intervention of 
Mr. Thomas Forsyth, the half-brother of Mr. Kinzie. Mrs. 
Helm had accompanied her parents to St. Joseph, where they re- 
sided in the family of Alexander Robinson,* receiving from them 
all possible kindness and hospitality for several months. 

"After their arrival in Detroit, Mrs. Helm was joined by her 
husband, when they were both arrested by order of the British 
commander, and sent on horseback, in the dead of winter, 
through Canada to Fort George on the Niagara frontier. When 
they arrived at that post, there seemed no official appointed to 
receive them, and notwithstanding their long and fatiguing jour- 
ney, in weather the most cold and inclement, Mrs. II., a delicate 
woman of seventeen years, was permitted to sit waiting in her sad- 
dle without the gate for more than hour, before the refreshment of 
fire or food, or even the shelter of a roof was offered them. 
"When Col. Sheaffe, who had been absent at the time, was in- 
formed of this brutal inhospitality, he expressed the greatest in- 
dignation. He waited on Mrs. Helm immediately, apologized 
in the most courteous manner, and treated both her and Lieut. 
H. with the most considerate kindness, until, by an exchange of 
prisoners, they were liberated, and found means to reach their 
friends in Steuben county, N. Y. 

"Capt. Heald had been taken prisoner by an Indian from the 
Kankakee, who had a strong personal regard for him, and who, 
when he saw the wounded and enfeebled state of Mrs. EL, re- 
leased her husband that he might accompany his wife to St. 
Joseph's. To the latter place they were accordingly carried, as 
has been related, by Chandonnai and his party. In the mean- 
time, the Indian who had so nobly released his prisoner, returned 
to his village on the Kankakee, where he had the mortification 
of finding that his conduct had excited great dissatisfaction 
among his band. So great was the displeasure manifested, that 

* The Pottawattamie chief, so well known to many of the citizens of Chicago, 
now residing at the Aux Plaines. 



274 Ransom of The Last Survivors. 

he resolved to make a journey to St. Joseph's and reclaim bis 
prisoner. 

" News of his intention being brought to To-pee-nee-bee and 
Kee-po-tah, under whose care the prisoners were, they held a 
private council with Chandonnai, Mr. Kinzie, and the principal 
men of the village, the result of which was, a determination to 
send Capt. and Mrs. Healcl to the island of Mackinac, and de- 
liver them up to the British. 

" They were accordingly put in a bark canoe, and paddled by 
Robinson and his wife a distance of three hundred miles along 
the coast of Michigan, and surrendered as prisoners of war to 
the commanding officer at Mackinac. 

u As an instance of the procrastinating spirit of Capt. Heald, 
it may be mentioned that even after he had received certain in- 
telligence that his Indian captor was on his way from the "Kan- 
kakee to St. Joseph's to retake him, he would still have delayed 
another day at that place, to make preparation for a more com- 
fortable journey to Mackinac* 

"The soldiers, with their w r ives and surviving children, were 
dispersed among the different villages of the Pottawattamies 
upon the Illinois, Wabash, Rock River, and at Milwaukie, until 
the following spring, when they were, for the most part, carried 
to Detroit, and ransomed. 

"Mrs. Burns, with her infant, became the prisoners of a chief, 
who carried her to his village and treated her with great kind- 
ness. His wife, from jealousy of the favor shown to ' the white 
woman' and her child, always treated them with great hostility. 
On one occasion she struck the infant with a tomahawk, and 
narrowly missed her aim of putting an end to it altogether, f 
They were not left long in the power of the old hag, after this 
demonstration, but on the first opportunity carried to a place of 
safety. 

" The family of Mr. Lee had resided in a house on the lake 
shore, not far from the fort. Mr. Lee was the owner of Lee's 
Place, which he cultivated as a farm. It was his son who ran 
down with the discharged soldier to give the alarm of l Indians' 
at the fort on the afternoon of the 7th of April. The father, 

* Captain (subsequently Major) Heald, his wife and family, settled in the 
country of St. Joseph, Mo., after the war, about 1817, where he died, about 
fifteen years since. He was respected and beloved by his acquaintance. His 
health was impaired by the wounds he received.— Western Annals, published in 
1850. 

t Twenty-two years after this, as I was on a journey to Chicago in the steamer 
Uncle Sam, a young- woman, hearing- my name, introduced herself to me, and 
raising the hair from her forehead, showed me the mark of the tomahawk 
which had so nearly been fatal to her. 



Black Partridge as A Rejected Lover. 275 

the son, and all the other members of the family, had fallen vic- 
tims on the 15th of August, except Mrs. Lee and her young 
infant. These were claimed by Black Partridge, and carried to 
his village on the An Sable. He had been particularly attached 
little girl of Mrs. Lee's, about twelve years of age. This 
child had been placed on horseback for the marfch, and as she was 
unaccustomed to the exercise, she was tied fast to the saddle, lest 
by any accident she should slip off or be thrown. 

" She was within reach of the balls at the commencement of 
the engagement, and was severely wounded. The horse set off 
in a full gallop, which partly threw her, but she was held fast by 
the bands which confined her, and hung dangling as the animal 
ran violently about. In this state she was met by Black Part- 
ridge*, who caught the horse and disengaged her from the saddle. 
Finding her so much wounded that she could not recover, and 
that she was suffering great agony, he put the finishing stroke to 
her at once with his tomahawk. He afterward said that this was 
the hardest thing he ever tried to do, but he did it because he 
could not bear to see her suffer. 

u He took the mother and her infant to his village, where he 
became warmly attached to the former — so much so, that he 
wished to marry her, but as she very naturally objected, he treated 
her with the greatest respect and consideration. He was in no 
hurry to release her, for he was in hopes of prevailing on her to 
become his wife. In the course of the winter her child fell ill. 
Finding that none of the remedies within their reach were effect- 
ual, Black Partridge proposed to take the little one to Chicago, 
where there was now a French trader living in the mansion of 
Mr. Kinzie, and procure some medical aid from him. Wrapping 
up his charge with the greatest care, he sat out on his journey. 

When he arrived at the residence of M. DuPin, he entered the 
room where he was, and carefullv placed his burthen on the floor. 

"'What have you there V asked M. Du Pin. 

" 'A young raccoon, which I have brought you as a present,' was 
the reply, and opening the pack, he showed the little sick inlant. 

"When the trader had prescribed for its complaint, and Black 
Partridge was about to return to his home, he told his friend his 
proposal to Mrs. Lee to become his wife and the manner in 
which it had been received. 

U M. Du Pin entertained some fears that the chief's honorable 
resolution might not hold out, to leave it to the lady herself 
whether to accept his addresses or not, so he entered at once into 
a negotiation for her ransom, and so effectually wrought upon 
the good feelings of Black Partridge that he consented to bring 
his fair prisoner at once to Chicago, that she might be restored 
to her friends. 



276 Death-bed Contrition of Nau-non-gee. 

"Whether the kind trader had at the outset, any other feeling in 
the matter than sympathy and brotherly kindness we cannot say 
— -we only know that, in process of time Mrs. Lee became 
Madame Du Pin, and that they lived together in great happi- 
ness for many years after. 

"The fate of Kau-non-gee, one of the chiefs of the Calumet 
village, and who is mentioned in the early part of the narrative, 
deserves to be recorded. 

"During the battle of the 15th of August, the chief object 
of his attack was one Sergeant Hays, a man from whom he had 
received many acts of kindness. 

"After Hays had received a ball through the body, this In- 
dian ran up to him to tomahawk him, when the Sergeant, col- 
lecting his remaining strength, pierced him through the i)ody 
with his bayonet. They fell together. Other Indians running 
up soon dispatched Hays, and it was not until then that his 
ba} T onet was extracted from the body of his adversary. 

" The wounded chief was carried after the battle to his village 
on the Calumet, where he survived for several days. Finding 
his end approaching, he called together his young men, and en- 
joined them in the most solemn manner, to regard the safety of 
their prisoners after his death, and to take the lives of none of 
them from respect to his memory, as he deserved his fate from 
the hands of those whose kindness he had so ill-requited."* 

[From Niles Eegister, Vol. IV, p. 82.] 

Saturday April 3d 1813. 

Mrs. Helm, the wife of Lieut. Helm, who escaped from the butchery of the 
garrison of Chicauga by the assistance of a humane Indian, has arrived at this 
place, Buffialo. The account of her suffering's during three months 1 slavery 
among the Indians and three months 1 imprisonment among their allies, would 
make a most interesting volume. One circumstance alone 1 will mention. Dur- 
ing five days afteijshe was taken prisoner, she had not the least sustenance, and 
was compelled to drag a canoe (barefooted and wading along the stream) in 
which there were some squaws, and when she demanded food, some flesh of her 
murdered countrymen, and a piece of ColonelWells 1 heart was offered her. She 
knows the fact that Col. Proctor, the British commander at Maiden, bought the 
scalps of our murdered erarrison of Chicauga, and, thanks to her noble spirit, 
she boldly charged him with his infamy in his own house. She knows further 
from the tribe with whom she was a prisoner, and who were perpetrators of 
those murders, that they intended to remain true, but that they received orders 
from the British to cut off the garrison whom they were to escort. 

(This last assertion probably originated in the brain of the editor of Niles 
Register, as Mrs. Helm in her narrative brings no such arraingment against the 
British.) — Author. 

* Mrs. Helm, who after the return of the Kinzie family to Chicago, became 
the intimate friend of Mrs. John H. Kinzie, has drawn a vivid picture of tho 
Chicago massacre, seldom equaled by a historic pen. In Wabun it has been 
reproduced iu Mrs. Kinzie's lucid style, whose freshness can never be equalled 
by any future historian, since the hand of time has spread its mantle of obliv- 
ion over the incidents of that day. For this reason it has been transferred to 
these columns. 



CHAPTER XY1IL 

The British take the Offensive — Fort Wayne Beseiged by their 
Indian Allies — Timely Warning to its Defenders — General 
Harrison Marches to its Defense — Desperate and Successful 
Defense of Tort Harrison by Captain Taylor — Daring 
Achievement of Captain Oliver — Arrival of General Harri- 
son at Fort Wayne — Its Beseigers fly — Expedition Against 
the Indian Toions on the Illinois River — Its Bootless Ter- 
mination — Governor Reynolds in the Ranks — His State- 
ment — Relentless Attach on Peoria — The English on the 
U'pper Mississippi — Black Hawk's Historical JTarration. 

Xo human vision could forecast the future destiny of the 
country around the Upper Lakes after the surrender of JMichili- 
manackinac, Chicago and Detroit. That the Indians would 
ever be driven entirely out of the country was an event that no 
British Canadian ever deemed possible, and accordingly Tecum - 
seh was, in the eyes of General Brock, the head and front of a 
permanent dynasty to live in the future on the soil. lie had 
accomplished all that was required of him in the late campaign, 
which had terminated so gloriously to British arms. And now 
a new one was contemplated, which was to carry the war into 
the very vitals of the Northwest, by taking Fort Wayne and 
Fort Harrison, which was built by General Harrison during his 
Tippecanoe campaign. There were then no maps of the coun- 
try obtainable in the British camp; but to supply this deficiency 
Tecumseh drew a sketch of its rivers, which indeed were nearly 
all that could be shown at that time. General Brock was agree- 
ably surprised at his versatility of talent, and with all confidence 
counseled with him as to future plans. Fort Wayne was the 
important objective point, and no time must be lost in seizing 
upon it, lest the Americans should reinforce the place before the 
attack was made. It was therefore ordered that the Indians 
should march against the place immediately, and environ it to 
prevent the escape of the garrison, till a British army could ar- 
rive at the spot and make its conquest certain. Prominent 
among the tribes who volunteered in this enterprise, were the 

(277) 



278 Fort Wayne Besieged. 

Pottawattomies, whose achievement at Chicago had emboldened 
them and whetted their appetites for plunder. The part they 
were to take was planned at a council at St. Joseph, where their 
chiefs met the British agents, and were promised if they would 
lay siege to the place and prevent the escape of the garrison till 
the British forces came up, they should be allowed to plunder 
the fort when taken. This inducement was sufficient, and they 
promptly joined their forces to some Shawanese and .Miamis, 
and appeared before the place before August had passed. 

True to their time-honored custom, they made no direct attack, 
but bent all their efforts to gain the place by stratagy, kill 
the sentinels and throw the gates of the fort open to their 
braves, who all the while were crouching in a covert near by. 
But before this was to be done, the Miamis wished to save their 
friend, Antoine Bondie, a French trader who had married one of 
their tribe, and had won their affections by a residence of thirty- 
eight years among them. Metea, a Pottawattomie chief, was 
deputied to go privately to his cabin and inform him of the In- 
dians intentions, and make arrangements for the rescue of him- 
self and family. This news placed the trader in an embarassing 
situation, and he was in a dilemma to know what to do, but 
tinaliy resolved to betray the confidence of the Indians, and even 
forfeit their protection, by revealing the plot to Major Stickney, 
the Indian agent. This he did the next morning under an in- 
junction of secrecy, and from him the information was soon 
given to Capt. Rhea, the officer who held command of the fort. 

All the while the agent was skeptical as to the truth of the 
news, but on maturing the matter over, both he and Capt. Rhea 
concluded to take the necessary steps to meet the emergency, in 
case it should come upon them, and immediately sent a messen- 
ger to General Harrison, then at Cincinnati, and one to Governor 
Meigs, of Ohio, asking assistance, and a third messenger to Ft. 
Harrison, to warn its inmates of danger. This done, preparations 
for defending the fort were made.* 

While the slender garrison are hotly pressed by their swarthy 
foes, a furious attack was made on Fort Harrison. It was situ- 
ated on the AVabash river, ten miles above its present intersec- 
tion of the eastern boundary line of Illinois. On the 3d of Sep- 
tember the Shawanese had visited the Pigeon Roost settlement, 
not far from the place, with a destructive raid, in which 20 per- 
sons were killed, whose scalps were soon dangling from the belts 
of these merciless knights of the tomahawk. 

This fresh alarm drove the immediate settlers around Fort 
Harrison within its walls for protection. Young Capt. Taylor, 

*Brice's History of Ft. Wayne. 



Brave Defense of Fort Harrison. 279 

the same who afterwards became President of the United States, 
held command of the place, to defend which he had bnt 18 men. 
Nine women and their children had taken refuge within its walls, 
in a fearful suspense, for the forests were alive with Indians on 
the war-path. On the night of the 4th, at 11 o'clock, the inmates 
of the fort were aroused from their disquiet slumbers by the 
report of a rifle. Captain Taylor sprang from his couch, and 
found that the shot came from one of his sentinels tiring at the 
skulking foe, who, in great numbers, immediately began the at- 
tack. One of the block houses was soon set on fire, and two 
panic stricken soldiers leaped over the barricades and fled into 
the forest for an asylum from the scalping knife, while the terri- 
fied women pressed their babes to their breasts in despair. 

Young Taylor's voice now rose above the din of yells without 
and wailings w r ithin, giving orders to throw off the roof of the 
building which connncted the burning block house with the main 
defenses. This arrested the progress of the flames. The sharp- 
shooters now kept the attackers at bay till morning, when they 
withdrew, to the great relief of the garrison. 

Of the two soldiers who forsook the fort in a panic, one was 
killed and the other after being wounded took refuge behind a 
barrel close by the pallisades. On the 13th, Capt. Taylor found 
means to send a messenger to General Harrison, and on the 16th 
he was rescued from his perilous position by Colonel Hopkins 
then, at the head of 1200 volunteers, on their way to the Illi- 
nois territory. Turning again to Ft. Wayne, we find both be- 
seigers and beseiged waiting for reinforcements. The Indians 
kept up their wily devices wherewith to gain pe.iceable admittance 
to the fort in sufficient numbers to overpower the sentinals, and 
even the old friendly chief, Winnemac, was a leading spirit in 
this attempted treachery. At one time he was admitted under a 
white flag, with thirteen of his comrades, but he found the 
guard ready to overpower his band when the critical moment 
came, and the discomfited dissemblers retired by virtue of the 
same flag by which they had gained admittance. 

The next day two soldiers outside of the fort were fired upon 
by the Indians and both killed. This was an overt act, and 
made any future pretentions of friendship, on the part of the 
Indians a gossamer fabric of pretense. The beleaguered garri- 
son, which numbered but 80 men, commanded by a drunken 
parvenue, and surrounded by a countless host of savages thirst- 
ing for their blood, were in desperate extremities. While thus 
eking out their hours of unremitting watchfulness, a yell of 
triumph saluted their ears from the northern gate, and through 
its opening ajar rushed their old friend "William Oliver and 
three friendly Indians at his back. His story was soon told to 



2S0 Oliver Penetrates Through the Enemy's Lines. 

the anxious garrison, wlio had not received any tidings from the 
outside world since their messengers had been sent to General 
Harrison to apprise him of their danger. Oliver was at Cincin- 
natti on a brief visit, when the news of the attack on Fort 
"Wayne came to General Harrison, and he instantly resolved to 
hasten back to the beleaguered post, of which he was sutler, to 
inform them that Harrison would soon arrive at the place with 
sufficient force to raise the seige, and to assist in its defense till 
he came. The adventure was a desperate one, which could only 
be conceived by a bold spirit of hardihood which pioneer life 
in that day had brought into being on the frontier. Starting 
from Cincinnatti immediately on his mission, he pursued the 
forest road to the St. Mary's river, where Thomas Worthiugton 
commanded an encampment of Ohio militia (the same who 
afterwards became governor of Ohio). To him Oliver commu- 
nicated his plan, and animated by Oliver's heroism, Worthington 
joined him with 68 militia and 16 friendly Shawanese. At the 
head of this force, the two bold leaders advanced down the St. 
Mary's river towards the place, but on the second day 36 of the 
Militia and ten of their Indian allies deserted. 

One day's march now brought the reduced but courageous band 
within the hearing of the enemies' guns, who had crouched 
around Fort Wayne on every side, to prevent the escape of the 
garrison. 

What was to be done? To attempt with this small force to 
pierce the lines of the enemy by a direct attack was not to be 
thought of, and Oliver, with three Indian companions, determined 
to steal their way to the fort through grounds not occupied by the 
besiegers. Pursuing the main road leading to the fort, five miles 
distant from it they found the enemies' rifle-pits, which, happily 
for Oliver and his party, were not occupied, but fearing to ad- 
vance further along the road, they made a detour to the east 
through the woods, and came to the banks of the Maumee, one 
and a half miles below the fort. Here they tied their horses in a 
thicket, and crept carefully toward the fort to see if it was still 
in possession of the Americans. After a nearer approach, they 
beheld the American flag elevated above the bastions, and soon 
afterwards saw the measured pace of the sentinels at their post. 
The party then returned, and mounting their horses, put them 
into a keen run till the inside of the fort was safely reached. 
Harrison is coming; this was the news he brought to the almost 
spent gar r i son. * 

Harrison had just received from the governor of Kentucky the 
appointment of Major-General by brevet, and to him was given 

Howes' Grsat West ; Briee's History of Fort Wayne. 



General Harrison Believes Fori Wayne. 281 

the command of 2,000 Kentucky troops, which the patriotic gov- 
ernor had raised for the defense of the Northwest. To these 
were added 700 Ohio volunteers, who joined the Kentucky forces 
at Piqua, Ohio, from whence they advanced toward the objective 
point with all possible speed. , When within seventeen miles of 
the place, General Harrison wrote to the Secretary of War as 
follows: "The necessary arrangements for the procuring of 
provisions and ammunition, added to the trouble of establishing 
an issuing commissary department, in consequence of the failure 
of the contractor, has prevented me from reaching Ft. Wayne as 
soon by one day as I expected. I shall, however, reach it to-mor- 
row; but I have every reason to believe it will not be without a 
severe contest. No information has been received from the fort 
since the 3d inst., and should the Indians have been assisted by 
a British detachment, I fear it would not have been able to hold 
out. A small detachment which I sent to endeavor to penetrate 
to the fort has just returned, without accomplishing their object, 
although they defeated a small party of the enemy."* 

The next dav, the 12th of September, General Harrison arrived 
at the place, when the Indians, as they had not been reinforced 
by the British, fled in hot haste, some to their wilderness lodges, 
and others to the military headquarters of their English Father, 
still breathing vengeance. Since the destruction of Chicago there 
were no white inhabitants in the whole territory of Illinois, north 
of a line drawn from Shawneetown to Greenville, Bond county, 
thence to the Mississippi river, a little north of Alton, except 
some sparse settlements on the west bank of the Wabash, oppo- 
site Vincennes, the old town of Peoria, which had never been 
brought within the jurisdiction of the territorial government, 
and Prairie du Chien, which was then within the limits of Illi- 
nois Territory. At the latter place lived thirty-seven families of 
mixed nationalities, consisting of French, English, half-breeds and 
Americans. An Indian Agent named Campbell, appointed by the 
governor of Illinois, acted as magistrate, to dispense justice, and 
appears to have exercised these functions to the entire satisfac- 
tion of his motley charge. Among his judicial records, which 
are still extant, are his fees for marrying, which were 100 lbs. of 
Hour, while his fees for divorce were" 200 lbs.f 

The whole territory was divided into two counties — St. Clair 
and Randolph — and Kmian Edwards was governor. It c jntained 
12,281 inhabitants, 168 of whom were colored slaves. 

While Gen. Harrison was marching to the relief of Ft. W-^yne, an 

*Dawson, p. 290. 

fSee Early History of Prairie du Chien, by D. S. Durrie, Librarian of the 
State Historical Suciety of Wisconsin. 



232 \ Expedition Against Indian Towns on Illinois River. 

expedition was set on foot against the Kickapoo towns on tlio 
Illinois river, which was to be composed of 2,000 men, raised by 
Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, and 350 United States Rangers 
and Illinois volunteers, stationed at Camp Russell, where Ed- 
wardsville, 111. now stands, subject to the orders of Kinian Ed- 
wards, then Governor of Illinois. The command of the Ken- 
tucky volunteers was given to General Hopkins, who was to move 
up the Wabash, destroy the Indian towns on its west bank, and 
then march westward across the country, to form a junction with 
the Rangers from Camp Russell. He reached Ft. Harrison on 
the 26th of October, 1812, where Captain Taylor, with his little 
handful of men, who had just distinguished themselves by their 
desperate defense of the place, joined his expedition, and he 
turned his course to the west into the Illinois prairies. After 
continuing his march three or four days, the signs of insubordi- 
nation became apparent among the restive spirits which composed 
his army. Most of them were raw recruits, who had never seen 
a shot fired in earnest. Many of them, when they enlisted, mis- 
took a spirit of wild adventure for patriotism; but a few da}^s of 
camp discipline, with the possibility of a tough Indian battle, or 
worse, an ambuscade, before them, became unruly. This spirit 
unfortunately spread from rank to rank, till a majority of the 
army shared it, and General Hopkins was forced to return, with- 
out making any farther attempts to form the expected junction 
with the forces from Camp Russell. 

Meantime the forces under Governor Edwards marched single- 
handed against the Indian towns on the Illinois river. Says Gov- 
ernor Reynolds, in his history of his own times: " Colonel Russell 
marched in the campaign and seemed to take, considerably, the 
immediate command under Governor Edwards. Judge Pope, 
]S r elson Rector and a Lieut. McLaughlin, of the army, acted as 
aids. Colonel Russell was a plain old man dressed in Kentucky 
jeans or linsey, seemed to need no aids and had none, but was a 
good and efficient officer himself. We left Camp Russell, 
marched up the northwest side of Cahokia creek, nearly to its 
source, thence across the prairie to Macoupin creek, not far above 
the present Carlinville. The privates (and myself one) did not 
know or care much where we were marched, whether into dan- 
ger or a frolic. We crossed the Sangamon river east of the 
present Springfield, and passed not far on the east of the Elk- 
heart Grove. We next reached an old Indian village on Sugar 
creek, where we saw on the bark of the wigwams much painting, 
generally the Indians scalping the whites. We set it in flames, 
and traveled in the night towards Peoria. We were afraid that 
the Indians would know of our approach and leave the villages. 
We traveled on till towards midnight and camped. We had 



fc> 



Black Partridge's Village Attached. 283 

aides along who conducted the army to the village of Potta- 
wattomie Indians known as the Black Partridge Tillage^* situate 
at the Illinois river bluff opposite the upper end of Peoria 
lake. We camped within four or five miles of the village, and 
all was silent as a grave} r ard — as we expected a night attack as 
was the case at Tippecanoe. "When troops are silent, sulky and 
savage, they will light. One thing I recalled, I had a white 
coat on me, and I considered it too white at night. 1 hulled 
this coat off in double-quick time. It is said every one with a 
white coat on in the battle of Tippecanoe was killed. The next, 
morning in a fog, our company of spies met two Indians, as we 
supposed, and our captain fired on them. Many of us, before 
lie shot, begged for mercy for the Indians, as they wanted to sur- 
render. But Judyf said anybody will surrender when they can- 
not help it, and that he did not leave home to take prisoners. I 
saw the dust rise off the Indian's leather shirt when Judy' bullet 
entered his body. The wounded Indian commenced singing his 
death song, the blood streaming out of his mouth and nose. He 
was reeling, and a man from the main army, Mr. Wright, 
came up within a few yards, but the Indian had just pointed his 
gun at some of us near him, when we darted off our horses, quick 
as thought, and presented the horses between him and us. But 
Wright was either surprised, or something else, and remained on 
his horse. The Indian, as quick as a steel-trap, shot Wright, and 
expired. The other Indian, supposed to be a warrior, proved to 
be a squaw; but before the fact was known, many guns were tired 
at her. It is singular that so many guns fired at the squaw- 
missed her, but when the whites surrounded her and knew her 
sex, all was over. She cried terribly, and was taken prisoner, and 
at last delivered over to her nation. Many of the French in the 
army understood her language, and made her as happy as possi- 
ble. In this small matter I never fired my gun, as I saw no oc- 
casion for it." 

The foregoing words of Governor Keynolds have been used to 
show T the ruling spirit of the expedition, which was the first one 
ever sent against the Indians of Illinois by the Americans. After 
relating these adventures, which certainly reflect no credit on those 
engaged in them, the same historian proceeds to give a history 
of the burning of Peoria by Captain Craig, and says: 

"While the army w r ere in the neighborhood of the old vil- 
lage of Peoria, Captain Craig had his boat lying in the lake ad- 
jacent to Peoria. * * * The Captain, supposing the few in- 

* The same who the previous year had saved the life of Mrs. Helm, as told 
in the relation of The Chicago Massacre. 



t One of the spies. 



2S4 Peoria Attacked. 

habitants of Peoria favored the Indians, burnt the village. Thom- 
as Forsyth, Esq., was in the village at the time, acting as Indian 
agent, appointed by the government, but Craig and none others 
knew it, except at "Washington city. It was supposed by the 
President that Mr. Forsyth would be more serviceable to both 
sides if his old friends, the Indians, did not know his situation. 
He acted the honorable part to ameliorate the horrors of war on 
both sides, and risked his life often amongst the Indians to ob- 
tain some of the prisoners who had been captured at the massacre 
at Chicago. In the rage of Captain Craig, he placed tne inhab- 
itants of Peoria (all he could capture) on board his boat, and 
landed them on the bank of the river, below Alton. These poor 
French were in a starving condition, as the} r were turned away 
from their homes, and left their stock and provisions. They were 
landed in the woods — men, women and children — without shelter 
or food." * 

Before the army of Governor Edwards left the neighborhood, 
it entered the village of Black Partridge, opposed only by a few 
shots from the swamps around it. The warriors had fled, and a 
few wretched squaws and children were ail the prisoners taken. 
The village, with its stores of corn, was burned. The rangers 
only remained a few hours, but while there a stately warrior 
approached the place until within rifle shot, discharged his gun 
at the invaders, laughed defiantly, and walked away with the 
lofty gait that only an Indian can assume. This brave was sup- 
posed to be Black Partridge. 

While these events were transpiring in Indiana and Illinois, 
the English were taking steps to secure the alliance of the Sacs 
and Foxes, who then occupied the country along Rock river. 
Robert Dickson, an English fur trader, who lived at Prairie du 
Chien, was the English agent to accomplish this design; and to 
this end he visited all the tribes along the Mississippi. Black 
Hawk was then a young chief of more than common promise, 
and readily became a disciple to the teachings of the English 
emissary. His remarkable career now began, which made him a 
conspicuous actor in the last Indian war in Illinois, which ter- 
minated in 1832. The Sacs and Foxes, of whom he was a subor- 
dinate chief, were then in their glory and prime, and as a bulwark 

* Capta n Craig's expedition was executed by the authority of Governor Ed- 
wards. It consisted of an armed boat which was rowed or polled up the 
Illinois river, for the purpose of taking; Peoria, where some of the early French 
settlers lived in harmonious relations with the Indians, and were accused of fur- 
nishing- them the means wherewith to make war on the Americans. Mr. Craig-, 
in his official despatches, admits that he abducted the French inhabitants Iroin 
Peoria, and that he made them furnish their own rations. See Balance History 
of Peoria, pp. 30, 31. 



Black Ilawtis Narration. 285 

of defense against them, the United States had built Fort Madi- 
son in 1804," on the west bank of the Mississippi, opposite to the 
Des Moines Rapids. The consent of the Sacs and Foxes for the 
construction of it had been obtained under a pretense that it was 
only to be used as a trading post. 

The following extract of a statement from Black Hawk, is a 
concise piece of documentary history, which adds interest to the 
points treated on by general history, and furnishes some items 
not noticed by any other writer. His statement begins by dis- 
claiming against a treaty executed at St. Louis in 1S04, by which 
his people, unwittingly, as he says, relinquished a part of their 
territory, after which, his story runs as follows. It is copied ver- 
batim from Smith's History of "Wisconsin : 

" Black Hawk proceeds to relate, that some time after this treaty 
was made, a war chief with a party of soldiers came up the Mis- 
sissippi in keel-boats, and encamped a short distance above the head 
of the Des Moines Rapids, and commenced cutting timber and 
building houses; this was at the site of Fort Madison, and within 
the country ceded by the treaty. He also says, that council after 
council was held in the Indian villages, to ascertain what was 
the intention of the Americans in building at that place, and 
having learned that the soldiers had great guns with them, he 
and a number of his people went down the river to see what Avas 
doing, and they found the whites were building a fort. The chiefs 
held a council with the officers of the party, which Black Hawk 
did not attend; but he says, "he understood that the Americans 
war chief had said, they were building houses for a trader who 
was coming there to live, and would sell the Indians goods very 
cheap, and that the soldiers were to remain to keep him company." 
The Indians were pleased at this information, but doubted its 
truth, and were anxious that the building should be discontinued, 
and that the soldiers should descend the river again. Many 
more Indians arrived, the whites became alarmed, and an attempt 
w T as made by a dancing party of the Indians to enter the fort by 
stratagem, but it was frustrated; and Bkek Hawk acknowledges 
that if it had been successful, and the Indians had got into the 
fort, all the whites would have been killed, as the British soldiers 
had been, at Mackinaw, many years before. 

The Indians returned to Rock Island, and the fort party re- 
ceived a reinforcement from St. Louis. 

Black Hawk proceeds w r ith the following relation: — "Soon 
after our return from Fort Madison, runners came to our village 
from the Shawnee Prophet, (while others w<ere dispatched by him 
to the villages of the Winnebagoes,) with invitations for us to 
meet him on the Wabash. Accordingly a party went from each 
village. 



286 Black Hawk's Narration, 

" All of our party returned, among whom came a Prophet, who 
explained to us the bad treatment the different nations of Indians 
had received from the Americans, by giving them a few presents, 
and taking their land from them. I remember well his saying, 
4 If you do not join your friends on the Wabash, the Americans 
will take this very village from you'. I little thought then that 
his words w T ould come true. We agreed not to join him, and he 
returned to the Wabash, where a party of Winnebagoes had ar- 
rived, and preparations were making for war; a battle soon after 
ensued, in which several Winnebagoes were killed. As soon as 
their nation heard of this, they started war parties in different 
directions: one to the mining country, one to Prairie du Chien, 
and another to Fort Madison. This last returned by our village, 
and exhibited several scaps which they had taken. Their success 
induced several other parties to go against the fort. We arrived 
in the vicinity during the night. The spies that we had sent out 
several days before, to watch the movements of those at the gar- 
rison, gave the following information: 'that a keel-boat had ar- 
rived from below, that evening, w T ith seventeen men; that there 
were about fifty men in the fort, and that they marched out 
every morning at sunrise, to exercise.' " 

Black Hawk then relates his stratagems to distroy the soldiers 
when they came out, and for the Indians to rush into the fort: 
they were unsuccessful: three whites were killed — the Indians 
besieged the fort for three days, during which time an attempt 
was made to set fire to it, by means of arrows. It succeeded so 
far as to fire the buildings several times, without effect, as the 
fire was soon extinguished. The ammunition of the Indians being 
expended, and finding they could not take the fort, they returned 
home, having had one Winnebago killed, and one wounded, dur- 
ing the siege. 

Soon after their return, news reached them that a war was 
going to take place between the British and Americans. Run- 
ners continued to arrive from different tribes, all confirming the 
report of the expected war. The British agent, Colonel Dickson, 
was holding talks with, and making presents to the different 
tribes. Black Hawk says — u I had not made up my mind 
whether to join the British, or remain neutral." But he soon 
afterwards took an active part with the British, having been, as 
he alleges, "forced into war by being deceived." His own ac- 
count of the causes of his conduct is as follows: — 

"Several of the chiefs and head men of the Sacs and Foxes 
were called upon to go to Washington, to see their Great Father. 
On their return they related what had been said and done. 
They said the Great Father wished them, in the event of a war 
taking place with England, not to interfere on either side, but to 



Blade Hawk's Narration. 287 

remain neutral. He did not want our help, but wished us to hunt 
and support our families and live in peace. He said that British 
traders would not be permitted to come on the Mississippi to 
furnish us with goods, but we should be well supplied by an 
American traderT Our chiefs then told him that the British 
traders always gave us credits in the fall for guns, powder, and 
goods, to enable us to hunt and clothe our families. He replied, 
that the trader at Fort Madison* would have plenty of goods; 
that we should go there in the fall, and he would supply us on 
credit, as the British traders had done. The party gave a good 
account of what they had seen, and the kind treatment they 
received. 

" This information pleased us all very much. "We all agreed 
to follow our Great Father's advice, and not interfere with the 
Avar. In a short time we were ready to start to Fort Madison to 
sret our supply of goods, that we might proceed to our hunting 
grounds. We passed merrily down the river, all in high spirits. 
I had determined to spend the winter at my old favorite hunt- 
ing ground on Skunk Biver, and left part of my corn and mats 
at its mouth, to take up when I returned; others did the same. 
Next morning we arrived at the fort and made our encampment. 
Myself and principal men paid a visit to the war-chief, at the 
fort. He received us kindly and gave us some tobacco, pipes, 
and provisions. The trader came in, and we all rose and shook 
hands with him, for on him all our dependence was placed, to 
enable us to hunt and thereby support our families. "We waited 
a long time, expecting the trader would tell us that he had orders 
from our Great Father to supply us with goods; but he said 
nothing on the subject. I got up, and told him in a short speech, 
what we had come for, and hoped he had plenty of goods to 
supply us, and told him he should be well paid in the spring; 
and concluded by informing him that we had determined to fol- 
low our Great Father's advice, and not go to war. 

"He said he was happy to hear that we intended to remain at 
peace. That he had a large quantity of goods; and that if we 
made a good hunt, we should be well supplied; but remarked 
that he had recieved no instructions to furnish us anything on 
credit — nor could he give us any, without receiving the pay for 
them on the spot. 

a We informed him what our Great Father had told our chiefs 
at Washington, and contended that he could supply us if he 
would, believing that our Great Father always spoke the truth. 
But the war-chief said, that the trader could not furnish us on 
credit, and that he had received no instructions from our Great 

* On the Mississippi, in the Sue and Fox country. 



288 Black Hawtis Narration. 

Father at "Washington. We left the fort dissatisfied, and went to 
onr camp. What was now to be done we knew not. We ques- 
tioned the party that brought us the news from our Great Father, 
that we should get credit for our winter supplies at this place. 
They still told the same story, and insisted upon its truth. Few 
of us slept that night; all was gloom and discontent. 

" In the morning a canoe was seen ascending the river. It 
soon arrived, bearing an express, who brought intelligence that 
La Gutrie,* a British trader, had landed at Kock Island with two 
boats loaded with goods, and requested us to come up immedi- 
ately, because he had news for us, and a variety of presents. 
The express presented us with tobacco, pipes, and wampum. 

" The news ran through our camp like lire in the prairie. Our 
lodges were soon taken down, and all started for Rock Island. 
Here ended all hopes of our remaining at peace, having been 
forced into war by being deceived. 

"Our party were not long in getting to Rock Island. When 
we came in sight and saw tents pitched, we yelled, fired our'guns, 
and commenced beating our drums. Guns were immediately 
fired at the Island, returning our salute, and a British flag 
hoisted. We landed and were cordially received by La Gutrie, 
and then smoked the pipe with him. After which he made a 
speech to us, that had been sent by Colonel Dickson, and gave us 
a number of handsome presents, a large silk flag, and a keg of 
rum, and told us to retire, take some refreshments and rest our- 
selves, as he would have more to say to us on the next day. 

u We according retired to our lodges, which had been put up 
in the mean time, and spent the night. The next morning we 
called upon him, and told him that we wanted his two boats 
load of goods to divide among our people, for which he should be 
w T ell paid in the spring, with furs and peltries. He consented; 
told us to take them and do as we pleased with them. While 
our people w r ere dividing the goods, he took me aside and informed 
me that Colonel Dickson was at Green Bay with twelve boats, 
loaded with goods, guns, and ammunition, and wished me to 
raise a party immediatey and go to him. He said that our friend, 
the trader at Peoria, was collecting the Pottawatomies, and would 
be there before us. I communicated this information to my 
braves, and a party of two hundred warriors were soon collected 
and ready to depart. On our arrival at Green Bay we found a 
large encampment, and were well received by Colonel Dickson 
and the war-chiefs that were with him. He gave us plenty of 
provisions, tobacco, and pipes, and said he would hold a council 
with us the next day. 

*La Gatrie, or La Goterie, was an Indian trader at Portage d^s Sioux — 3 
Canadian Frenchman, probably of mixed blood. 



Black UawFs Narration. 280 

" In the encampment I found a large number of Pottawatomie?, 
Kickapoos, Ottawas, and Winnebagoes. I visited all their 
camps and found them in high spirits. They had all received 
new guns, ammunition, and a variety of clothing. In the even- 
ing a messenger came to me, to visit Colonel Dickson. I went 
to his tent, in which there were two other war-chiefs, and an in- 
terpreter. He received me with a hearty shake of the hand, and 
presented me to the other chiefs, who shook my hand cordially 
and seemed much pleased to see me. After I was seated, Colonel 
Dickson said, ' General Black Hawk, I sent for you to explain to 
you what we are going to do, and the reasons that have brought 
us here. Our friend La Gutrie informs us in the letter you 
brought from him, what has lately taken place. You will now 
have to hold us fast by the hand. Your English Father has 
found out that the Americans want to take your country from 
you, and has sent me and his braves to drive them back to their 
own country. He has likewise sent a large quantity of arms and 
ammunition, and we want all your warriors to join us.' 

" He then placed a medal round my neck, and gave me a 
paper,* (which I lost in the late war,f) and a silk flag saying. 
' You are to command all the braves that will leave here the 
day after to-morrow, to join our braves near Detroit." I told 
him I was very much disappointed, as I wanted to descend the 
Mississippi, and make war upon the settlements. He said he 
had been ordered to lay the country waste around St. Louis: 
that he bad been a trader on the Mississippi many years; had 
always been kindly treated, and could not consent to send brave 
men to murder women and children. That there were no 
soldiers there to fight; but where he was going to send us, there 
were a number of soldiers, and if we defeated them, the Missis- 
sippi country should be ours. I was pleased with this speech; it 
was spoken by a brave. 

" The next day, arms and ammunition, tomahawks, knives, and 
clothing, were given to my band. We had a great feast in the 
evening, and the morning following, I started with about five 
hundred braves to join the British army. The British war-chief 
accompanied us. We passed Chicago. The fort had been evac- 
uated by the American soldiers, who had marched for Fort 
Wayne. They were attacked a short distance from that fort and 
defeated.^ They had a considerable quantity of powder in the 
fort at Chicago, which they had promised to the Indians; but the 

*This paper was found at the battle of Bad Axe — it was a certificate of his good 
behavior, and attachment to the British, 
fin 18:32. 
% Slaughtered, being defenceless. 



290 Black Hawk's Narration. 

night before they marched they destroyed it. I think it was 
thrown into the well. If they had fulfilled their word to the In- 
dians, I think they would have gone safe. 

" On onr arrival I found that the Indians had several prisoners. 
I advised them to treat them well. We continued our march and 
joined the British army below Detroit, and soon after had a tight. 
The Americans fought well, and drove us with considerable loss. 
I was surprised at this, as I had been told* that the Americans 
could not fight. 

u Our next movement was against a fortified place. I was 
stationed with my braves to prevent any person going to or 
coming from the fort. I found two men taking care of cattle, 
and took them prisoners. I would not kill them, but delivered 
them to the British war-chief. Soon after, several boats came 
down the river full of American soldiers. They landed on the 
opposite side, took the British batteries, and pursued the soldiers 
that had left them. They went too far without knowing the for- 
ces of the British, and were defeated. I hurried across the river, 
anxious for an opportunity to show the courage of my braves; 
but before we reached the ground all was over. The British had 
taken many prisoners, and the Indians were killing them. I im- 
mediately put a stop to it, as I never thought it brave, but cow- 
ardly, to kill an unarmed and helpless enemy .f 

k ' We remained here some time. I cannot detail what took 
place, as I was stationed with my braves in the woods. It ap- 
peared, however, that the British could not take this fort,^: for 
we were marched to another, some distance off. When we ap- 
proached it, I found it a small stockade, || and concluded that 
there were not many men in it. The British war-chief sent a 
flag; Colonel Dickson§ carried it and returned. He said a young 
war-chief •[ commanded, and w T ould not give up without fighting. 
Dickson came to me and said, ' You will see to-morrow how 
easily we will take that fort.' I was of opinion that they would 
take it; but when the morning came I was disappointed. The 
British advanced, commenced an attack, and fought like braves; 
but by braves in the fort were defeated, and a great number killed. 
The British army were making preparations to retreat. I was 
now tired of being with them, our success being bad, and having 



'& 



got no plunder. I determined on leaving them and returning to 

* Bv the British. 

f General Proctor commanded the British — his brutal conduct is well known 
in history. 
JFort Meigs. 
| Fort Stephenson. 

§ He is mistaken in the name — Chambers and Mason carried the flag. 
^[ Lieutenant Croghan. 



Black HawUs Narration. 291 

Bock Island, to see what had become of my wife and children, as 
I had not heard from them since I started. That night I took 
about twenty of my braves and left the British camp for home. 
We met no person on our journey until we reached the Illinois 
River." 

The foregoing piece of history from Black Hawk, is certified 
to by Antoine L. Claire, United States interpreter, dated at the 
Indian Agency, Rock Island, Oct. 16th, 1832, as copied from 
Smith's Documentary History of Wisconsin, Yol. III. The re- 
maining part of his statement refers to the Sac war of 1832, and 
will be noticed in its proper place. 

The appearance of the British on the Upper Mississippi, and 
their threatened invasion of Southern Illinois, is verified by Black 
Hawk's statement, and without doubt, the fear of such a calamity 
was the chief incentive to Governor Edward's attack on Peoria, 
and the Indian towns adjacent. At that time the British had 
received no check in their victorious career, Michigan and Wiscon- 
sin both being in their possession, while the Indian tribes of the 
country were largely inclined to join their fortunes with them, as 
the best means by which to preserve their hunting grounds from 
the greed of their white neighbors. That Illinois was spared such 
an invasion, was due to the activity with which the Americans 
were at the same time pushing the campaign against Detroit, 
under General Harrison, to oppose whom all the British forces 
and their Indian allies finally proved insufficient.* 

The war soon began to rage on the Niagara border, as well as 
along the Detroit, and the death of General Brock, who was slain 
in battle here, was the severest blow the British had yet received. 
General Proctor, who was opposed to General Harrison in the 
famous campaign of 1813, was deficient in those high and sol- 
dierly qualities which distinguished General Brock, who had 
done so much honor to English arms in the campaign of 1812, 
which had terminated in the surrender of General Hull. The tide 
was now turning, as will be seen in succeeding pages. 

*See Reynolds 1 Hist, of his own times, p. 130. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

General Harrison Appointed to the Command of the North - 
western Army — Ten Thousand Men Raised to Reclaim De- 
troit and Invade Canada — A Wilderness of Mud Interposes 
between the Combatants — General Winchester Reaches the 
Rapids of the Maumee — Advances to Frenchtown, on the 
River Raisin — Rattle of the River Raisin, Ending in De- 
feat, Capitulation and Treacherous Slaughter of War Pris- 
oners — Fort Meigs Built at the Rapids — General Proctor 
Advances Against the Place — Desperate Attach and Success- 
ful Defense of the Post — The British Retreat and Attach 
Ft. Stephenson — The Mashed Six-pounder and its Fatal 
Fffects — Rout of the British — The War Tram sf erred to Can- 
ada — The American War Fleet Sails from Erie — The Naval 
Battle — The American Army in Canada — Battle of the 
Thames — Tecumseh Slain — Michigan Reclaimed — Peace. 

The last campaign was now at hand, which was substantially 
to complete the conquest of the Northwest, from the Indians, 
who up to this time had not entirely relinquished the hope that 
they could establish a permanent boundary between themselves 
and the whites, which should stop farther encroachments on their 
territory. This had been the early hope of Tecumseh, in which 
fatal dream he was at least not disheartened in his confidential 
councils with the British. In him was centered the last hopes 
of the Indians, and he may be set down as the last of that illus- 
trious line of chiefs whose eloquence and commanding power, and 
inflexible resolution have challenged admiration, not only from 
the world, but from the foes against whom they fought. Un- 
der him the red man was still powerful, though tainted with the 
vices of civilization, without being elevated by its virtues. 

On the part of the white settlers all eyes were turned towards 
General Harrison, whose star had risen the year before on the 
field of Tippecanoe, and under pressure of an intelligent, popu- 
lar will he was appointed commander-in-chief of the North- 
western army, on the 17th of September. 

This news reached him on the 24th, while at Piqua, on his way 
to relieve Ft. Wayne, at the head of 2,000 Kentucky volunteers, 
as told in the foregoing chapter. At his disposal were placed 
10,000 men, composed of volunteers from Virginia, Pennsylvania, 

(292) 



Advance to The Maumee Rapids, 293 

Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, together with a regiment from the 
regular army. The full quota had been raised, and in Kentucky 
the backwoods men, brimming over with patriotism, came for- 
ward in such numbers, that many had to be relused admittance 
into the service after the ranks were full. The instructions to 
General Harrison, were first to provide protection to the frontier, 
after which Detroit was to be taken, Michigain reclaimed from 
British rule, and lastly Canada was to be invaded. This was an 
undertaking of no small magnitude; but western blood was up, 
and nothing short of its fulfillment would satisfy the frontierers. 
The only posts the Americans held on the entire chain of the 
lakes, were Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland and Sandusky, any one of 
which were ever liable to a hostile visitation from the English 
fleet on the lakes. The volunteers were impatient to come to 
battle with the British, but ere this could be brought about, a 
broad wilderness had to be traversed, whose spongy soil was an 
almost bottomless pool of mud in the low grounds, and whose 
unbriclged streams with their alluvial margins, were a treacherous 
path for the ponderous machinery of war. To overcome these 
obstacles, Harrison immediately set himself to work. The Rapids 
of the Maumee was the strategic point to be made the base of 
his movements, and he gave orders to the different army corps to 
proceed to this place. Of these there were three detatchments, 
one to march by the way of Upper Sandusky, another by Urban a 
and a third by the way of the Auglaize river. Each of these 
divisions had struggled through the oozy savannas with which the 
forest abounded, as fast as their zeal and muscle could carry them, 
but so slow was their progress that it was not till the 10th of 
January, 1813, that the Rapids were reached by the Adrance 
corps, led by General Winchester, while General Harrison him- 
self was fltillat Upper Sandusky, with the right w T ing of the army, 
and General Tapper, of whom McAfee, the cotemporary historian, 
speaks very disparagingly, was at Ft. McArther with the Centre. 
The following is copied from Dawson's Life of Harrison: 

"The roads were bad beyond description; none but those who have actually 
seen the slate of the country, seem ever to have formed a correct estimate of the 
difficulties to be encountered. The road from Loramie's blockhouse to St. Mary's, 
and thence to Defiance, was one continuous swamp, knee-deep on the pack- 
horses, and up to thp hubs of the wagon. It was found impossible in some 
instances to get even the empty wagons along, and many were left in the mire, 
the wagoners bein'jr glad to get off with the horses alive. Sometimes the quar- 
termaster, taking advantage of a temporary freeze, would send off a convoy, 
which would be swamped by a thaw ere it reached its destination. These 
natural difficulties were also increased by a great deficiency of funds and inade- 
quacy of the other resources which were requisite in the quartermaster's depart- 
ment. The only persons who could be procured to act as pack-horse drivers, 
were generally the most worthless creatures in society, who took care neither of 
the horses nor the goods with which they were entrusted. The horses were of 



294 Battle of The Biver Raisin. 

course soon broken down, and many of the packs lost. The teams hired to haul 
were also commonly valued so high on coming- into the sendee, that the owners 
were willing- to drive them to death with a view to get the price. In addition 
to this, no bills of lading were used or accounts kept with the wagoners. Of 
course each one had an opportunity to plunder the public without much risk of 
detection." 

Shortly after the arrival of General Winchester at the Rapids, 
messengers came to him from Frenchtown on the River Raisin, 
imploring his protection from the British and Indians, who had 
taken possession of the place soon after the surrender of General 
Hull, at Detroit. 

Tlfe request was granted, and on the 17th,* 550 men were sent 
on this mission under command of Colonel Lewis, supported by 
110 more under command of Colonel Allen. They reached the 
place the next day, attacked the British and drove them out. 
As soon afterwards appeared, this advance was hazardous in the 
extreme, Maiden, the headquarters of General Proctor, who had 
recently been appointed as commander of the British troops, 
being only eighteen miles distant, from which place a superior 
force could be brought against the post in a few hours. Not- 
withstanding this. General Winchester unwisely determined to 
maintain the position, and reinforced the place with 250 more 
men from the Rapids, accompanying them in person. As might 
be supposed, the British were no idle spectators of the situation, 
and stealthily marched against the place on the night of the 21st 
with a heavy force. The next morning General Winchester 
beheld with surprise, the batteries of the enemy, erected within 
commanding distance of his camp. 

An obstinate battle immediately ensued, which is best described 
by Dawson, in his Life of Harrison, as follows: "The American 
army in this affiair lost upwards of 290 in killed, massacred and 
missing. Only 33 escaped to the Rapids. The British took 
517 prisoners, and the Indians about 45. The loss of the enemy, 
as the Americans had no chance to ascertain, it was of course 
never known to the public. From the best information that 
could be obtained, it is believed to have been in killed and 
wounded, between three and four hundred. The Indians suf- 
fered greatly, and the 41st regiment was very much cut up.'* 
Their whole force in battle was about 2000 — one-half regulars 
and Canadians, commanded by Cols. Proctor and St. George; 
the other composed of Indians, commanded by Round Head and 
Walk- in -the- Water — Tecumseh was not there; he was still on 
the Wabash collecting the warriors in that quarter." The pris- 
oners were transported to Amherstburg, where they were 

*The large number of Americans killed was the result of the merciless 
slaughter by the Indians immediately after some retreating fragments of the 
army had surrendered to them. 



American Prisoners Paroled. 295 

crowded into a muddy woody ard without shelter. A heavy 
rain fell upon them the succeeding night, which greatly in- 
creased their suffering in that inclement season, especially as 
they were thinly clad and without blankets. Here they re- 
mained till the 26th, when they were marched, in two divisions, 
through Upper Canada to Ft. George, on the Niagara, where 
they were paroled and returned home by the way of Erie and 
Pittsburg, and thence down the Ohio river. The conditions of 
their parole were, that they not to bear arms against his majes- 
ty or his allies during the present war until exchanged. On the 
reception of these terms, some of the inquisitive Xentuckians 
asked who were his majesty's allies. The question was designed 
as a rebuke to the British, for accepting an alliance with the 
Indians. The reply was, that " His majestie's allies were well 
known."* Besides the prisoners thus paroled, were the 45 taken 
by the Indians, a few of whom were massacred, but most of them 
held for ransom, at Detroit.f 

Soon after this, General Proctor issued a proclamation, requir- 
ing the citizens of Michigan to take the oath of alliegance to his 
majesty, or leave the state.* 

As stated in a previous cliapter, after the massacre at Chicago, 
the Kinzie family were sent to Detroit, where they were living as 
paroled prisoners at the time of the river Raisin horror. The 
house occupied by them was their old mansion, on the corner of 
Jefferson and Wayne streets. § 

* Dawson's life of Harrison, p. 357. 
t Dawson; Wabun. 

$ Against this, Judge Wcodard, of Detroit, remonstrated, averring- that it 
was contrary to the law of nations. That a subject cannot transfer his alle- 
giance in time of war, without incurring the penalty of treason. 

§ " It had been a stipulation of Gen. Hull at the surrender of Detroit, that the 
inhabitants of that place should be permitted to remain undisturbed in their 
homes. Accordingly the family of Mr. Kinzie took up their quarters with their 
friends, in the old mansion, which many will recollect as standing on the north- 
east corner of Jefferson avenue and Wayne street. 

The feelings of indignation and sympathy were constantly aroused in the 
hearts of the citizens, during the winter that ensued. They were almost daily 
called upon to witness the cruelties practiced upon the American prisoners 
brought in by their Indian captors. Those who could scarcely drag their 
wounded, bleeding feet over the frozen ground, were compelled to dance for the 
amusement of the savages, and these exhibitions sometimes took place before the 
Government House, the residence of Col. McKee. Some of the British officers 
looked on from their windows, at these hearc-rending performances ; for the 
honor of humanity, we will hope such instances were rare. 

Every thing that could be made available among the effects of the citizens 
were offered, to ransom their countrymen from the hands of these inhuman 
beings. The prisoners brought in from the River Raisin — those unfortunate 
men who were permitted, after their surrender to Gen. Procter, to be tortured 
and murdered by inches, by his savage allies, excited the sympathies and called 
for the action of the whole community. Private houses were turned into hospi- 



296 Fort Meigs Built. 

The calamitous result of this affair, well nigh frustrated the 
plan of General Harrison to maintain his position at the Rapids, 
and on his arrival at the place the next day after the battle, its 
few survivors came in with such alarming news, that he, after 
holding a council of war, thought it prudent to retreat as far as 
Portage river, which he did the day following, after destroying 
the provisions and burning the block house. Here, being re-in- 
forced on the 1st of February, he again advanced to the Rapids, 
and determined to make a stand against the audacious enemy. 

A fort was built, which was named Fort Meigs, in honor of the 
governor of Ohio. It was situated on the east bank of the Mau- 
mee, opposite the battle ground where General Wayne, eighteen 
years before, had overwhelmed the Indians with defeat under the 
very guns of the English, who at that time had a fort on this his- 
toric ground, on the north side of the river just below the present 
site of Fort Meigs. Harrison was now in a critical position. 
Of the 10,000 men which had been raised for his service, many 
were lingering on the way under the duress of a mud blockade; 
some were posted at points where a force was necessary to over- 
awe the Indians, and not a few had been wasted with the malarious 
diseases of the country, whose immense valleys had not yet been 
disinfected by the smoke of the pioneer. The British, by means 
of their vessels on the lake, could quickly bring to the front all 
the supplies they wanted for the campaign, while the Americans 
had to transport their camp-supplies over a hundred miles of 
quagmire, and the same difficulties that had beset the path of 
General Hull * now threatened General Harrison. The most he 

tals, and every one was forward to get possession of as many as possible of the 
survivors. To effect this, even the articles of their apparel were bartered by (he 
ladies of Detroit, as they watched from their doors or windows, the miserable 
victims carried about for sale. 

In the dwelling- of Mr. Kinzie, one large room was devoted to the reception of 
the sufferers. Few of them survived. Among- those spoken of as objects of the 
deepest interest, were two young gentlemen of Kentocky, brothers, both severe- 
ly wounded, tind their wounds aggravated to a mortal degree, by subsequent 
ill-usage and hardships. Their solicitude for each other, and their exhibition 
in various ways of the most tender fraternal affection, created an impression 
never to be forgotten. 

The last bargain made, was by black Jim; and one of the children, who had 
permission to redeem a negro servant of the gallant Col. Allen, with an old 
white horse, the only available article that remained among their possessions. 

A brother of Col. Allen, afterwards came to Detroit, and the negro prefened 

returning to servitude, rather than remaining a stranger in a strange land. 

Waubun, p. 249. 

* Says General Harrison in his report to the War department, a few weeks 
previous to this ti me : " If there were not some important political reason urging 
the recovery of Michigan Territory and the capture of Maiden as soon as those 
objects can possibly be effected, and that to accomplish them a few weeks sooner, 
expense was to be disregarded, I should not hesitate to say, that if a small pro- 



Fort Meigs Besieged. 297 

could hope was to defend Fort Meigs and Sandusky till reinforced 
with sufficient numbers to pursue the original plan of the 
campaign by advancing on Detroit. Well knowing that General 
Proctor was better prepared to take the offensive than himself, 
and rightly judging that he would do so, General Harrison made 
the earth defenses of Fort Meigs as perfect as military skill could 
make them, and awaited his approach. The winter passed with 
but little freezing weather, and a boundless sea of mud interposed 
between Fort Meigs and its expected reinforcements, till General 
Proctor and Tecumseh appeared before the place with 3,000 
British and Indian troops. It was now the 2(5 th of April, and 
an active summer campaign was at hand, for which General 
Harrison was by no means prepared. The tenants of Fort Meigs 
now beheld the enemy planting their batteries from the high 
bank on the opposite side of the river, which were soon to vomit 
forth a tempest of hot shot and shells into Fort Meigs. 

While these preparations were being made on the part of the 
British, their red allies under Tecumseh crossed over the river 
and took a position in the rear of the fort among the forest 
trees. To encourage them, General Proctor had promised an 
easy victory over the Americans to Tecumseh,. It was said with 
doubtful authority, that he promised to deliver to Tecumseh Gen- 
eral Harrison's person, as war prisoner, as soon as Ft. Meigs should 
be taken. A furious fire was now opened upon the ibrt from 
the British batteries by day and night, while the Indians climbed 
the tall forest trees and kept up a iire of small arms against the 
garrison. To protect themselves from the bursting shells which 
were constantly exploding inside of the fort, the soldiers dug 
burrows in the ground and crept into them when a shell fell near 
by, remaining till it had exploded, from which circumstance the 
Indians said they fought like ground hogs. Day after day the 
attack was kept up with unremitting fury, the fire of the defend- 
ers all the while responding. 

On the 3d of May, after three days of unusually heavy firing, 
General Proctor sent a flag of truce to General Harrison, demand- 
ing the surrender of the place. Major Chambers was its bearer, 
and when introduced to General Harrison, the following words 
passed between them: 

Major Cn ambers: — General Proctor has directed me to demand the sur- 
render of thi- post. He wishes to spare the eft'asion of blood. 
General Harrison : — The demand under the present circumstances is a most 

portion of the sums which will be expended in the quarter-master's department 
in the active, prosecution of the campaign during- the winter was devoted to 
obtaining" the command of Lake Erie, the wishes of the government in their 
utmost extent, could be accomplished without difficulty/' in the months of April 
and May. Dawson, p. 333. 



208 Exploit of Oliver, The Daring Scout. 

extraordinary one. As General Proctor did not send me a summons to surrender 
on his first arrival, I had supposed that he believed me determined to do my 
duty. His present message indicates an opinion of me that I am at a loss to 
account for. 

Major Chambers: — General Proctor could never think of saying- anything 
to wound your feelings, sir. The character of General Harrison as an officer, 
is well known. General Proctor's force is very respectable, and there is with 
him a larger body of Indians than has ever before been embodied. 

General Harbison: — I believe I have a correct idea of General Proctor's 
force; it is not such as to create the least a prehension for the result of the con- 
test, whatever shape he may be pleased hereafter to give to it. Assure the 
General, however, that he will never have this post surrendered to him upon 
any terms. Snouid it fall into his hands, it will be in a manner calculated to 
do him more honor and to give him larger claims upon the gratitude of his gov- 
ernment, than any capitulation could possibly do. 

The messenger then returned to th.3 British camp, and the attack began again 
with increased fury. 

At the opening of the siege, General Harrison had sent mes- 
sengers for the purpose of hurrying forward reinforcements, and 
in response to them, General Green Clay at the head of 1,200 
Kentucky and Ohio volunteers, were now within three hours 
march of Ft. Meigs on the banks of the Maumee, just above the 
Hapids; but the danger of an ambuscade was so imminent, that 
lie durst not advance another step till he had communicated with 
General Harrison. Who dared undertake such a dangerous mis- 
sion? The first man who volunteered to do this, was Captain 
Leslie Combs, of Kentucky. At the head of a few picked men, 
lie crept within a mile ol the fort, when he was discovered by the 
enemy, and nearly all his party were killed, Combs himself nar- 
rowly escaping the fate of his daring companies. Fortunately 
Captain William Oliver was in the camp, the same dashing young 
ranger who had penetrat d through the Indian lines around Fort 
Wayne a few months before, and carried a message to its defend- 
ers, that Harrison was marching to their relief; and now, by the 
changing fortunes of war, it became his lot to take a message to 
General Harrison, that relief was at hand for him. Fifteen brave 
Ohioans promptly volunteered to follow him in this dangerous 
adventure. Late in the evening on the 4th, they seated them- 
selves in their boat and silently rowed down the Maumee, till the 
camp tires of the besiegers were visible, when the party landed 
and crept along the margin of the river towards the fort. Inside 
of it silence and darkness reign ed, for their fires had been extin- 
guished, lest they might afford direction for the enemy's shot. 
The sentinels were on the alert, for there was a purpose there 
brooding over the situation in the darkness of their vengeful 
solitudes, and when Oliver's party came to the gate they were 
mistaken for the enemy about to make an assault, and were fired 
upon; fortunately none of them were wounded, and they soon 
found means to make themselves known, and entered the fort, 



Dashing Sortie — Victory — Ambuscade. 293 

Oliver immediately going to the quarters of General Harrison. 
jS^ow the whole situation was changed. The beleaguered gar- 
rison could take the offensive. A hardy messenger, (Captain 
Hamilton, of the Ohio volunteers), was immediately dispatched to 
General Clay Green, to advance and attack the British batteries 
on the north side of the river opposite the fort, with 800 men, 
while with the remaining 400 men he was to light his way 
through the enemy's lines into the fort. While these movements 
were in progress, a sortie was to be made from the fort against 
the British batteries, farther up the river on the south side. 
Early the next morning, Clay made his appearance according to 
orders, and suddenly the enemy found their whole line of batter- 
ies attacked by a foe whom they had hitherto beheld with con- 
tempt. Colonel Miller led the assault on the South side, drove 
the gunners from their guns, spiked them and returned to the 
fort, while Colonel Dudley, from Clay's command, attacked the 
batteries on the north side. They were also taken, but unfor- 
tunately in the flush of victory, the dashing Kentuckians fol- 
lowed in hot pursuit after the retreating columns. This was 
contrary to the orders of General Harrison, who beheld from 
the fort the fatal pursuit with deep anguish. The pursuers were 
led into an ambuscade, and all but 150 of the gallant 800 were 
killed or taken prisoners. The Indians kept on their work of 
slaughter after they had surrendered, till Tecum sell interposed 
his authority, to put a stop to the fiendish work.* 

The results of the day were, that Harrison was reinforcrd by 
over 500 men, notwithstanding his losses, and many of the be- 
sieger's guns were spiked. Besides these advantages, General 
Proctor had received the first lesson in Volunteer practice, which 
was quite sufficient to convince him that Ft. Meigs could not be 
taken. He therefore determined to retreat, lest he might be at- 
tacked by fresh reinforcements. Complete preparations for this 
were made by the 9th, when his force, consisting of 600 regulars, 
800 Canadian militia and 1S0O Indians, suddenly withdrew down 
the river, giving one tremendeous discharge from their cannon, 
back towards the fort as they let't.f This parting salute killed 
10 in the fort, and wounded as many more, said one of the offi- 
cers " we were glad enough to see them off, on any terms." Of 
this whole army retreating from American soil, not one felt the 
sting so bitterly as Tecumseh. Little did he then think he should 
never again return. His unrelenting courage, however, was not 
shared by his army of 1800 Indians. Kot that they lacked the 

*Drake, Howe's Hist, of Ohio, 
t Howe's Hist, Ohio, p. 531. 



300 British Change of Base, 

dasliin g qualities of good soldiers, but the ordinary discipline by 
which the armies of civilized nations are held together, are want- 
ing in an Indian army, for it has no provision against desertion. 

If the meanest soldier gets discouraged, or takes a homsick fit 
to return to his lodge and see his squaw, the chief has no other 
means but moral suasion, to prevent it. As long as the Indian 
sees progress and a hope of booty, he will cheerfully endure hun- 
ger and other discomfitures, but he is a poor dependence for 
besieging' well defended forts, and the English, much to theii 
chagrin, found this to be the case before the war was over, 
although it was to them they owed their first successes at its 
opening. After giving up the siege of Ft. Meigs, General Proc- 
tor and Brigadier General Tecumseh (to give him his title), de- 
termined to make a sudden dash against some vital point occu- 
pied by the Americans. Of such points, Upper Sandusky, where 
a large amount of provisions and other military stores were col- 
lected, and Erie, where a fleet was being built, were by far the 
most important. Apprehensive of an attack on Upper Sandusky, 
General Harrison stationed himself, with what forces he could 
command, at Seneca, which laid in the path between Sandusky 
bay and this place, as by means of his scouts he had ascertained 
that the enemy were massing their forces in this direction. 

At the head of navigation on the Sandusky river, was Ft. Stephen- 
son, a small stock de defended by less than 200 men under com- 
mand of Captain Crogan, a nephew of the famous General George 
Rogers Clark, whose timely conquest of the Illinois country in 
the days of revolutionary memory, will not be forgotten. Fort 
Stephenson, also laid in the path of the enemy on their way to 
Upper Sandusky, the vital point of the Americans. Meantime, 
while General Proctor's fieet had put into Sandusky Bay, and 
were approaching Ft. Stevenson, Tecumseh's Indians had crossed 
the country by a hasty march, and were threatening Upper San- 
dusky. Under these circumstances, instructions were sent to 
Captain Crogan to retire from Ft. Stevenson, if he could do so 
with safety, but the orders did not come in time to affect the 
retreat with a reasonable hope of success, and he determined on 
defending the post. 

On the 31st of July, the British fleet made their appearance 
before the place commanded by General Proctor himself, his force 
consisting of 500 regulars and as many Indians, the vigilant Tecum- 
seh all the while lying back with his army, ready to intercept any 
intended reinforcements to the place from Ft. Meigs, as well as to 
co-operate with General Proctor in a descent on Upper Sandusky, 
as soon as Ft. Stephenson should fall into their hands. After 
the usual investment, which occupied the time till the 2nd of 



Gallant Defense of Fort Stephenson. 301 

August, General Proctor sent a summons to Captain Crogan to 
surrender. This he promptly refused to do, and when admon- 
ished of the fate which awaited them from the vengeful Indians, 
in case the fort had to be taken by assault, Mr. Shipp, with 
whom the messenger conferred, replied: "There will none of us 
be left to kill." 

The messenger now retired and the attack began by a heavy 
cannonading, to which the besieged could only retort with a 
single six-pounder. 

Little execution was done on either side by this method, and 
General Proctor, not wishing to waste his time by the slow pro- 
cess of a siege before so insignificant a post, ordered an assault. 
This had been expected by Captain Crogan, and he had made 
ample provision for it by masking his cannon so as to command 
the ditch where the attack was to be made. The piece was 
loaded with a double charge of small shot and destructive mis- 
siles, and but half a charge of powder, as he intended, before tir- 
ing it, to wait till the attackers were close enough to get the full 
force of the contents, which, with its light charge of powder, 
would scatter and mow down all the larger swath of men when 
near enough to receive it at its greatest force. 

Unconscious of immediate danger, the assailants approached 
within 30 feet of its muzzle, when the peice was unmasked and 
tired at their solid phalanx of men, who were advancing 
with the scaling ladders in their hands, with which to climb the 
walls of the fort. Never before in the history of the war, was the 
effect of a single cannon-shot so terrible; more than 50 men fell, 
of whom above half never rose again. An instantaneous dis- 
charge of small arms from the defenders followed, and when the 
smoke was lifted from the scene of slaughter, the immense 
army of besiegers were seen flying from the field, while 150 of 
their number were left dead or dying behind." Crogan's loss 
was 1 killed and 5 wounded.f Proctor's hopes of penetrating the 
country, so as to take Upper Sandusky, thus dashed to the ground, 
he resolved to retreat, and so apprehensive was he that Harrison 
would attack his rear, that he left a sloop-load of stores behind, as 

*The bes'esred let down pails of water from the wall of the fort, for the relief 
of the wounded, immediately after the assault had ceased. — Howe's History of 
Ohio 

t Black Hawk was at this seige. which he describes in his statement, already 
given in the foregoing pages, thus: " Dickson came to me and said, you will see 
to-morrow, how easily we will take that fort. I was of the opinion they would 
take it, but when the morniner came I was disappointed. The British advanced, 
commenced an attack, and fought like braves, but by braves were defeated, and 
a great number killed. 



302 British Retreat to Canada. 

his vanquished army in hot haste crowded sail down the San- 
dusky river.* 

The disappointed Indians baulked of their prey, vanished into 
the forests, wending their way northwardly towards their British 
attraction, as the needle turns towards the pole. While this ill- 
starred expedition of Proctor's had been in progress, another one 
was planned against Erie, intended to destroy the American fleet 
now almost ready to sail from the place. 

This was entrusted to Captain Barclay, and sailed from Maiden 
down the lake on the 18th of July. After reconnoitering the 
American defenses, it returned without making the attempt, f 

On to Maiden, again became the watchword throughout the 
northwest. Ohio proposed to raise 10,000 volunteers for the 
service, and Kentucky was not less zealous in the cause, but the 
government had proposed to furnish regulars for the service, and 
it was not possible to accept all the volunteers who felt eager to 
take a hand in the invasion of Canada. A clamor of discontent 
. , «k _ 

* General Harrison's fame now stood so high, especially in the estimation of 
the friendly Indians, that the most prominent chiefs among the Delawares and 
Senecas, and even some of the Shawaneese chiefs, offered their services to him 
with their respective braves. They were accepted and joined his array at Sene- 
ca, his head-quarters on the Portage river; but among the Shawaneese chiefs, 
one named Blue Jacket (not the one of the same name whose high-bred virtues 
had made him conspicuous in bringing about the peace of Greenville), perhaps 
under an impression that if General Harrison could be killed the Indian caus-e 
would be gained, determined on assassinating him. True to the Indian custom, 
he confided this secret resolution to his best friend, and begged his assistance in 
the affair. Such assistance his friend was not bound to give, according to the 
measure of Indian honor, but he was bound to preserve the secret. Here was a 
dilemma. He loved Harrison, not only for his charity for the Indian race, but 
tor the kindness he had shown him from his early youth, ever since his father 
had been executed by the laws of his tribe for the crime of sorcery. Moreover, 
he was impressed with a full sense of the bad consequences sure to result to his 
tribe (the Delawares), should the intentions of Blue Jacket be carried out. 
While thus painfully brooding over the issue a few days latter, the would-be 
assassin came into his presence in a towering rage. Colonel McPherson, an 
officer in General Harrison's army, had just turned him out of his presence for 
some breach of decency, and he swore vengeance on him for the insults, declar- 
ing he would kill him also. This roused the indignation of the young chief, to 
whom the murderous intention had been confided, and he felled him to the 
ground with a single blow from his tomahawk, and despatched him with a sec- 
ond. He next ordered his dead body sent to his tribe, and bade defiance to 
popular resentment for the act. 

Instead of pa sing an unfavorable verdict upon the hero, he was applauded, 
and two years later General Cass made him a handsome 'present as a reward for 
his fidelity to General Harrison. The name of this chief was the Beaver; he now 
became a great favorite with General Harrison, and later with Commodore 
Perry, who christened him The General's Mameluke. — Dawson s Life of Harri- 
son, p. 415. 

t The impossibility of his larger vessels getting over^ the bar, might have 
been his reason for relinquishing the attack more than his fear of the American 
defenses. 



General Harrison's Letter to Governor Meigs. 303 

among the Ohio militia was the result, and General Harrison 
wrote a letter to Governor Meigs to allay it, of which the follow- 
ing is a part: 

"The exceptions you have made, and the promptitude with 
which your orders have been obeyed to assemble the militia and 
repel the late invasion, is truly astonishing, and reflect the high- 
est honor on your State. * * * It has been the intention of 
the government to form the army destined for operation on Lake 
Erie, exclusively of regular troops if they could be raised. The 
number was limited to 7,000. The deficiency of regulars was to 
be made up from the militia. * * I have, therefore, called on 
the governor of Kentucky for 2,000 men; with those there will 
still be a deficiency of about 1,200. Your Excellency has stated 
to me that the men who have turned out on this occasion, have 
done it with the expectation of being effectually employed, and 
that should they be sent home, there is no prospect of getting 
them to turn out hereafter, should it be necessary. To employ 
them all is impossible. With my utmost exertions, the embarka- 
tion cannot be effected in less than fifteen or eighteen days, 
should I even determine to substitute them for the regular troops 
which are expected. To keep so large a force in the field, even 
for a short period, would consume the means which are provided 
for the support of the campaign. Under these circumstances, I 
would recommend a middle course to your Excellency, viz: to 
dismiss all the militia but two regiments. * * It appears 
that the venerable governor of Kentucky is about to take com- 
mand of the troops of that State. Could your Excellency think 
proper to follow his example, I need not tell you how highly 
grateful it would be, dear sir, to vour friend, 

W. II. IlAKRISOX. r * 

Agreeable to the request of General Harrison, the 2,000 Ohio 
volunteers were sent to Upper Sandusky by Governor Meigs, to 
await his orders, but unfortunately their enlistment had only 
been for forty days, and on these terms, General Harrison declined 
to accept their services. This raised a storm of indignation 
against the commanding general, unjust as it was fleeting, for it 
could hardly be supposed that raw recruits could accomplish the 
requirements of the campaign in so short a time. The new 
American fleet had now cut loose from its moorings, and for the 
first time the American Jack was thrown to the breeze on Lake 
Erie. It sailed up the lake to Sandusky about the 18th of 
August, where Commodore Perry, who held command of it, 
anchored off the harbor and conferred with General Harrison, 

*Dawson's Life of Harrison, p. 412. 



304: Perry's Victory. 

who came on board his vessel. The fleet was still deficient in 
men, and General Harrison furnished him 150 to complete his 
crew. The Commodore now sailed for Maiden, where the Eng- 
lish fleet lay protected by the land batteries. 

In vain the American flag was flaunted in full view; the Eng- 
lish fleet did not accept the challenge, and Commodore Perry 
retired to Put-in-bay, on the American side. On the 10th of 
September, however, the English fleet left Maiden, and Commo- 
dore Perry immediately sailed out to meet it. The following is 
his own account of the battle which followed: 

" At 15 minutes before 12, the enemy commenced firing; at 5 
minutes before 12 the action commenced on our part. Finding 
their fire very destructive, owing to their long guns, and its 
being mostly directed to the Lawrence, I made sail, and directed 
the other vessels to follow, for the purpose of closing with 
the enemy. Every brace and bow-line being shot away, she 
became unmanageable,* * * The Lawrence, which was the 
flag-ship, finding she could no longer annoy the enemy, I 
left her. * * At half past 2, the wind springing up, Cap- 
tain Elliott was enabled to bring his vessel, the Niagara, into 
close action. I immediately went on board of her, when he antic- 
ipated my wish, by volunteering to bring the schooners, which 
had been kept astern by the lightness of the wind, into close 
action. * * At 45 minutes past 2 the signal was made for 
close action. The Niagara being very little injured, I deter- 
mined to pass through the enemy's line, bore up and passed 
ahead of their two ships and a brig, large schooner and sloop 
from the larboard side, at half pistol shot distance. 

The smaller vessels at this time, having got within grape and 
canister distance, under the direction of Captain Elliott, and 
keeping up a well directed fire, the two ships, a brig and a 
schooner surrendered, a schooner and a sloop making a vain 
attempt to escape."* 

The furious connonading of the battle was heard at Maiden, 
while its smoke rose in portentious clouds into the calm autumn 
sky that overhung the lake, dying away in the distant haze of its 
tranquil face. Who had won the victory? was the question that 
rung through the lines of Proctor's army of 4,000 white and red 
soldiers, assembled there awaiting its issue. Besides these, were 
many American prisoners not less anxious, among whom was 
John Kinzie, who had been brought to the place in the following 
manner, as told in Waubun: 

Mr. Kinzie, as has been related, joined his family at Detroit in the month of 
January. A short time after suspicions arose in the mind of Gen. Proctjr that 

L_ 'American State Papers, Vol. n, p. 295. 



Governor Shelby Arrives. 305 

he was in correspondence with Gen. Harrison, who was now at Fort Meiers, and 
who was believed to be meditating an advance upon Detroit. Lieut. Watson, of 
the Br.tish army, waited upon Mr. Kinzie one day, with an invitation to the quar- 
ters of Gen. Proctor, on the opposite side of the river, saying he wished to speak 
with him on business. Quite unsuspicious, he complied with the invitation, 
when to his surprise he was ordered into confinement, and strictly guarded in 
the house of his former partner, Mr. Patterson of Sandwich. Finding that he 
did not return to his home, Mrs. Kinzie informed some of the Indian chiefs, his 
particular friends, who immediately repaired to the head-quarters of the com- 
manding officer, demanded their "friend's " release, and brought him back to 
his home. After waiting a time until a favorable opportunity presented itself. 
the General sent a detachment of dragoons to arrest him. They had succeeded 
in carry vig him away, and crossing the river witn him. Just at this moment a 
] arty of friendly Indians made their appearance. 

"Where is the Shaw-nee-aw-kee y" was the first question. "There,' 1 
replied his wife, pointing across the river, " in the hands of the red-coats, who 
are taking him away again." 

The Indians ran to the river, seized some canoes that they found there, and 
crossing over to Sandwich, compelled Gen. Proctor a second time to forego his 
intentions. 

A third time this officer was more successful, and succeeded in arresting Mr. 
Kinzie and conveying him heavily ironed to Fort Maiden, in Canada, at the 
mouth of the Detroit River. Here he was at first treated with K r reat severity, but 
after a time the rigor of his confinement was somewhat relaxed, and he was per- 
mitted to walk on the bank of the river for air and exercise. 

On the 10th of September, as he was taking his promenade under the close 
supervision of a guard of soldiers, the whole party was startled by the sound of 
guns upon Lake Erie, at no great distance below. What could' it mean? It 
must be Commodore Barclay firing into some of the Yankees. The firing con- 
tinued. The time alotted the prisoner for his daily walk expired, but neither 
he nor his guard observed the lapse of time, so anxiously were they listening 
to what they now felt sure was an engagement between ships of war. At 
length Mr. Kinzie was reminded that the hour ior his return to confinement had 
arrived. He petitioned for another half-hour. 

" Let me stay," said he. " till we can learn how the battle has gone. 1 " 

Very soon a sloop appeared under press of sail, rounding the point, and pres- 
ently two gun-boats in chase of her. 

" She is running — she bears the British colors,' 1 cried he — " vps, yes, they 
are lowering— she is striking her flag! Now." turning to the soldiers, " I will 
go back to prison contented — I know how the battle has gone." 

The shop was the Little Belt, the last of the squadron captured by the gallant 
Perry on that memorable occasion, which he announced in the immortal words: 

" We have met the enemy, and they are ours!" 

On the 17th of September, Shelby, the venerable revolutionary 
father and governor of Kentucky, arrived at Harrison's head- 
quarters on the Portage Piver, with 2,000 Kentucky troops. On 
the 21st everything was in readiness, and the embarkation of 
troop for the invasion of Canada began. All the available water- 
craft of the Americans, together with the captured British fleet, 
were brought into service, and with the assistance of all these, 
the army had to be transported by piecemeal, part of them being 
conveyed at a time to the Middle Sister Island. AVhile the trans- 
portation of the troops was going on, General Harrison and Com- 
modore Perry made a recounoisance off Maiden, to select a place 
for the debarkation of the army. This done, the troops were 



306 Battle of The Thames. 

quickly transported from the island to the Canada shore, and 
Maiden was entered by them on the 27th. 

Governor Shelby led the advance, but the enemy had fled, and 
in their place a deputation of well-dressed women met him, with 
those irresistable courtesies which always win the heart of a gal- 
lant soldier. Their request for protection was granted, and the 
army passed on in pursuit of Proctor and Tecumseh, who were in 
full retreat up the valley of the Thames. On the 5th of October 
they were overtaken, and the battle of the Thames followed, a 
description of which is here given, in General Harrison's official 
report, taken from Dawson, p. 427: 

" The troops at my disposal consisted of about 120 regulars 
of the 27th regiment, five brigades of Kentucky volunteer 
militia infantry, under His Excellency, Gov. Shelby, averaging 
less than 500 men, and Col. Johnson's regiment of mounted in- 
fantry, making in the whole an aggregate something above 3,000. 
No disposition of an army, opposed to an Indian force, can be 
safe unless it is secured on the flanks and in the rear. I had, 
therefore, no difficulty in arranging the infantry conformably to 
my general order of battle. General Trotter's brigade of 500 
men, formed the front line, his right upon the road and his left 
upon the swamp. General King's brigade as a second line, 150 
yards in the rear of Trotter's, and Chiles' brigade as a corps of 
reserve in the rear of it. These three brigades formed the com- 
mand of Major General Henry; the whole of Gen. Desha's 
division, consisting of two brigades, were formed en jpotence 
upon the left of Trotter. 

Whilst I was engaged in forming the infantry, I had directed 
Col. Johnson's regiment, which was still in front, to be formed in 
two lines opposite to the enemy, and upon the advance of the 
infantry, to take ground to the left, and forming upon that flank 
to endeavor to turn the right of the Indians. A moment's re- 
flection, however, convinced me that from the thickness of the 
woods and swampiness of the ground, they would be unable to 
do anything on horseback, and there was no time to dismount 
them and place their horses in security; I therefore determined 
to refuse my left to the Indians, and to break the British lines at 
once, by a charge of the mounted infantry: the measure was not 
sanctioned by any thing that I had seen or heard of, but I was 
fully convinced that it would succeed. The American back- 
woodsmen ride better in the w T oods than any other people. A 
musket or rifle is no impediment to them, being accustomed to 
carry them on horseback from their earliest youth. I was per- 
suaded, too, that the enemy would be quite unprepared for the 
shock, and that they could not resist it. Conformably to this 



Battle of The Thames. 807 

idea, I directed the regiment to be drawn up in close column, 
with its right at the distance of fifty yards from the road, (that 
it might be in some measure protected by the trees from the 
artillery) its left upon the swamp, and to charge at full speed as 
soon as the enemy delivered their fire. The few regular troops 
of the 27th regiment, under their Colonel (Paull) occupied, in 
column of sections of four, the small space between the road and 
the river, for the purpose of seizing the enemy's artillery, and 
some ten or twelve friendly Indians were directed to move un- 
der the bank. The crotchet formed by the front line, and Gen- 
eral Desha's division, was an important point. At that place, 
the venerable Governor of Kentucky was posted, who at the age 
of sixty-six preserves all the vigor of youth, the ardent zeal 
which distinguished him in the revolutionary war, and the un- 
daunted bravery which he manifested at King's Mountain. With 
my aids-de-camp, the acting assistant Adjutant General, Captain 
Butler, my gallant friend Commodore Perry, who did me the 
honor to serve as my volunteer Aid-de-camp, and Brigadier- 
General Cass, who having no command, tendered me his assist- 
ance, I placed myself at the head of the front line of infantry, 
to direct the movements of the cavalry, and give them the 
necessary support. The army had moved on in this order but a 
short distance, when the mounted men received the fire of the 
British line, and were ordered to charge; the horses in the front 
of the column recoiled from the fire; another was given by the 
enemy; and our column at length getting in motion, broke 
through the enemy with irresistible force. In one minute the 
contest in front was over; the British officers seeing no hopes of 
reducing their disordered ranks to order, and our mounted men 
wheeling upon them and pouring in a destructive fire, immedi- 
ately surrendered. It is certain that three only of our troops 
were wounded in this charge. Upon the left, however, the con- 
test was more severe with the Indians. Colonel Johnson, who 
commanded on that flank of his regiment, received a most gall- 
ing fire from them, which was returned with great effect. "The 
Indians still further to the right advanced and fell in with our 
front line of infantry, near its junction with Desha's division, 
and for a moment made an impression upon it. His Excellenev, 
Governor Shelby, however, brought up a regiment to its support, 
and the enemy receiving a severe fire in front, and a part of 
Johnson's regiment having gained their rear, retreated with 
precipitation. Their loss was very considerable in the action, 
and many were killed in their retreat." 

Tecumseh was slain in this battle. Colonel Richard M. John- 
son, afterwards vice-president of the United States, without 



308 Death of Tecumseh. 

doubt, believed himself to be the one who achieved the honor. 
There is good testimony that he killed an Indian whom he thought 
to be him,* but there is conflicting testimony as to who killed 
Tecumseh. Shabonee, whose integrity may be vouched for by 
many of the old settlers of Chicago, who are still living, was near 
Tecumseh when he was killed, and attributed his death to Colonel 
Johnson, f 

Mr. William Hickling, a well-known citizen of Chicago, was 
familiarly acquainted with Shabonee and Caldwell, who both 
lived at Chicago in her early day, and in a paper which he read 
before the Chicago Historical Society in 1377, the following state- 
ment is made, which brings to light some new facts relative to 
the battle of the Thames : 

Caldwell held in high regard, and often spoke of the military genius and 
other qualifications of Tecumseh, looking- upon him as the greatest warrior 
chief of his time. Caldwell, like his leader Tecumseh, during the last year of 
their military career, while operating in connection with the British on our 
frontier, and in Canada, lost all confidence in the ability of Gen. Proctor, the 
British commander. It is well known that Tecumseh was bitterly opposed to 
the evacuation of Fort Maiden, and subsequently, when the British commander 
halted in his retreat, and iormed his lines for a combat at the Moravian Towns, 
it was because Gen. Tecumseh informed him that he and his Indians thought 
the army had retreated far enough, and were not going any further without first 
having a fight. Tecumseh was summoned to the British headquarters to discuss 
the plan of battle. We have the authority of Caldwell to say that Tecumseh 
and Gen. Proctor had a violent quarrel over the plans laid out by the latter for 
the conflict. That Tecumseh leit the British headquarters in disgust, after only 
a short interview, and returned to the old position occupied by him an hour or so 
previous, and then sending Caldwell to see Gen. Proctor, and urge upon him the 
necessity of changing his plan of battle. Soon after the departure of Caldwell 
from his Indian allies, the battle commenced with great fury. The death of 
Tecumseh and route of the British and Indian forces are well known in history. 
Caldwell was not able to againjoin his Indian friends, until after the battle was 
over. He always expressed himself as well satisfied, that had Gen. Tecumseh. 
instead of Gen. Proctor, held command over both armies (British and Indians) 
that the result of the campaign, and especially its fatal finale at the " Thames," 
would have been different. Shabonee, Tecumseh, Caldwell, and Black Hawk 
were in counsel together, sitting on a log, or fallen tree, smoking their pipes, 
and talking over the events of the times, when the messenger from Gen. Proc- 
tor arrived, summoning Tecumseh to his headquarters. 

The soil of the northwest was now impressed by the foot of any 
armed foe except at Michilimacihac. The campaign thus closed. 
Governor Shelby's volunteers were honorably discharged, and 
General Harrison, with his force of regulars, embarked from 
Detroit on the 23d of October, in obedient to orders from the 
war department, after having appointed General Cass as pro- 
visional governor of Michigan, and leaving a force of 1,000 troops 
under his command. Early the next spring, in 1814, the gover- 

*See Hist. Coll. State Hist. So. of Wis. p. 372. 
fSee Hist. Co 1. State Hist. So. of Wis., p. 373. 



Prairie du Chien Taken by The British. 309 

ernment authorities of St. Louis, apprehensive of a British inva- 
sion from Michilimackinac, sent a detachment of soldiers to repair 
the old fort at Prairie du Chien, and defend the place against an 
attack. 

That these apprehensions were well grounded, soon became 
apparent, for a large force of British and Indians shortly after- 
wards came down the Wisconsin river, under Colonel McKay, 
and laid siege to the place. It was taken after an obstinate 
defense, its garrison parolled and sent to St. Louis. In the month 
of July, the same year, an expedition was fitted out at Detroit to 
capture Michilimackinac, Commodore Sinclair commanding the 
fleet, and Colonel Crogan, the hero of Ft. Stephenson, the land 
forces. The latter landed on the Island, but fell into an ambus- 
cade in approaching the fort, and were severely repulsed, when 
the expedition returned without affecting its object, and Michili- 
mackinac, as well as Prairie du Chien, remained in British posses- 
sion till given up by the terms of peace, at the close of the war. 
The first hostile blow in this war had fallen upon the northwest 
on the upper lakes, under an impression that having conquered 
this part of the country, and guaranteed a goodly portion of it to 
certain Indian tribes as independent nations, the New England 
States would, through their influence in the English end of the 
scale to put an end to the war in a peaceful solution of the ques- 
tion, even with these conditions, and in that early age, such a 
solution of the issue to English eyes, seemed possible, especially 
as it was no secret to English diplomatists that if the counsels of 
the New England States had ruled alone, the war would not have 
been declared, at least till more time had transpired to tone 
down the pretentious spirit of the English, jaded to frenzy, as 
they were, by the formidable conquests of their great adversary, 
Napoleon. 

In this dream, the English calculated without their host, for 
when the pinch came, the New England States manifested no 
disposition to desert the west, or to give it up, either to English 
or Indian hands, although from conscientious scruples they did 
object to invade Canada. The attempt to establish an indepen- 
dent nation of savages north of the Ohio river, was equally imprac- 
ticable, and as might have been supposed, resulted in the Eng- 
lish breaking faith with the Indians when peace was made, with- 
out fulfilling their obligation. The proof that such an obligation 
was entered into by the English witii the Indians, is implied by 
the tenacity with which they insisted (even as a sine qua non 
to a treaty of peace) on the integrity of an Indian confederacy, 
with its distinct boundaries. 

The boundary was to be the same as that established at the 



310 Testimony of Riiddel and Caldwell. 

treaty of Greenville, in 1795. It would have given the Indians 
the 'northern portions, and the largest half of the entire northwest. 

At or before the breaking out of the war, this allurement was 
held out to Tecumseh, and by it his alliance secured and his mas- 
terly energies brought to bear in favor of the English, notwith- 
standing the fatal results of the prophet's defeat at Tippecanoe. 
Besides, the manifest evidence of this, which was brought to the 
surface during the peace negotiations at Ghent, is the oral testi- 
mony of two witnesses, Be v. Mr. Puddel, of Kentucky, and Billy 
Caldwell, chief of the Pottawattomies, who lived at Chicago. 
Mr. Puddel was taken captive by the Shawaneese, raised by them 
to manhood, and delivered up to his kindred at the treaty of 
Greenville. On coming into the walks of civilization, he soon 
educated himself, and became an efficient minister of the Gospel 
in the Christian denomination. After the close of the war of 
1812, he felt a strong desire to visit his early friends among the 
Shawaneese, and especially those of Tecumseh, to learn what he 
could of the history of the fallen chief; and from them he learned 
that the English did pledge to Tecumseh, to secure for the Indians 
as allies, permanent possession of the territory, not included in 
the lands relinquished to the whites, at the treaty of Greenville. 
With this guarantee, Tecumseh again took up the sword, 
although his tribe had made peace with General Harrison, after 
the Tippecanoe campaign. The first year of the war justified 
his expectations, but when the recoil came, and Proctor retreated 
from American soil, Tecumseh became dissatisfied, and doubted 
the ability of the English to fulfil their obligations. This he 
freely expressed at a private conference with his chief, just before 
the battle of the Thames. Billy Caldwell was at this conference, 
and at Chicago in 1833, when interviewed by Mr. Peck, the 
author of the Western Annals verified the statements of Mr. 
Euddel. 

Says Mr. Peck, in his history, page 647: 

" He was anxious to find some trustworthy American citizen to 
write the biography of Tecumseh, and gave as a reason that no 
British officer should ever perform that service to his distinguished 
friend," remarking at the same time: " The British officers prom- 
ised to stand by the Indians until we gained our object. They 
basely deserted us, got defeated, and after putting in our claims 
in the negotiations at Ghent, finally left us to make peace with 
the Americans on the best terms we could. The Americans fairly 
whipped us, and then treated with us honorably, and no Briton 
shall touch one of my papers." 

" Mr. Caldwell had a trunk well filled with papers and docu- 
ments, pertaining to Tecumseh." 



Negotiations at Ghent. 311 

The conditions and issues that came before both the English 
and Americans at the negotiations of peace at Ghent, were pecu- 
liar. It was necessary, in order to bring about peace, that both 
nations should make humiliating concessions.* 

The following is copied from reports of the American peace 
commissioners at Ghent, to the Secretary of State, asking instruc- 
tions: 

Ghext, 19th of August, 1814. 

It was a sine quanon that the Indians should be included in the pacification 
and as incident thereto; that the boundaries of their territory should be per- 
manently established. Peace with the Indians is so simple as to require no 
comment. 

With respect to the boundary which was to divide their territory from that of 
the United States, the object of the British government was, that the Indians 
should remain as a. permanent barrier between our western settlements and the 
adjacent British provinces, to prevent them from being conterminous to each 
other; and that neither the United States nor Great Britain should ever here- 
after have the right to purchase or acquire any part of the territory thus recog- 
nized as belonging to the Indians. British State papers. Vol. i, Part n, p. 1589. 

Peace wis necessary for both nations; England had been in the 
vortex of European war for twelve years; American discontent 
was cropping out in protests from the legislatures of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut,f and from the Hartford convention, composed 
of delegates from throughout New England. 

The handiwork of the sword had exhausted Europe, and he 
who would try to prolong its devastations was an enemy to man- 
kind. Conservatism was above par, and the American Govern- 
ment set the example by instructing her peace commissioners to 
add no fuel to the council-fires at Client, by mentioning the sub- 
ject of Right of Search or Impressment of American Seamen. 
This was an admission that time, and not the sword, had won 
our cause. It also rebuked the policy of Jefferson, which re- 
jected the terms offered by England to Messrs. Monroe and 

* What is the probable result of this negotiation is hard to suppose. The ques- 
tion of a speedy peace we rather apprehend, depends on the prospects of things 
in Europe, and the turn of events in the congress of Vienna. In case peace 
should not be made, this fact will be apparent to every one, that the war on our 
part, if offensive in its onset, will be purely defensive in its future progress and 
termination. With the general pacification of Europe, the chief causes for 
which we went to war with Great Britain, have, from the nature of things, ceased 
to affect us; it is not for us to quarrel for forms. Biitain may pretend to any 
right she pleases, provided she does not exercise it to our injurv. — Niles Regis- 
ter, Dec. 10th, 1814. 

fEarly in 1814, the Legislature of Connecticut passed a resolution to consider 
what measures should be ta.ken to preserve the liberties and rights of her citi- 
zens, when the Secretary of War called upon her for troops to invade Canada ; and 
on the 7th of October, the same year, the Governor of Massachusetts convened 
an extra session of the legislature, lo take into consideration the dangers of an 
English invasion of her State, as a consequence of the war, which many of her 
statesmen deemed unnecessary. 



312 Negotiations at Ghent. 

Pinckney in 1808, which were that an informal assurance should 
be given that the practice of Right of Search should be discon- 
tinued. * History would fail to fulfil its mission if it did not 
state here that when the war was declared Napoleon was in the 
height of his power. Now he was an exile at Elba, and Eng- 
land's well drilled army was released from the service at home 
which had placed him there, and consequently ready for an 
American campaign. 

Still she was not ambitious to undertake it, choosing rather to 
relinquish her first terms than prolong the war. Besides her plan 
for an independent Indian nation in the northwest, was another 
provision, which was to bar the Americans from building any for- 
tifications on the shores of the lakes, or placing any armed vessels 
of war on their waters,f on the ground that such a provision was 
necessary to preserve Canada from the danger of an American 
invasion. These impracticable terms being given up, an attempt 
was made to define the boundary between the two governments 
on the northeastern and on the northwestern frontier, but this 
involved more complications than were expedient to be under- 
taken at the time, and the matter was left for future adjustment, 
and so remained till settled by the Ashburton treaty of 1846. The 
treaty w T as signed on the 24th of December, 1814, and ratified at 
Washington on the 17th of February, 18154 

The battle of New Orleans was fought during this interval, 
after the signing of the treaty, for then its combatants had not 
heard the news of the peace. 

The war was not without its glories to American arms, though 
its main issue was a dead one a few days after its declaration, 
when the British revoked their orders in council, which had 
been so obnoxious to American interests, as told in a previous 
chapter. 

Treaties of peace with the various western tribes of Indians 

* Jefferson's rejection of the terms was because he declined to insert them in 
the treaty. Perhaps his residence in Paris as American minister, had dazzled 
his eyes with French glory to the detriment of England and he was not unwil- 
ling ito exact from her both the letter and the spirit of radical justice. 

tAm. State Papers, 1811 to 1815, p. 607. 

tin considering the conditions of the peace, as we have been informed of 
them, we canriot but regard them as honorable to this country. The American 
Government began the war on account of the orders in council, and to enforce 
the relinquishment of impressment on board their merchant vessels. The orders 
in council were repealed by our government before they knew of the commence- 
ment of the war. Tne war was continued by America, after she knew of the 
repeal of the orders in council, to compel us to relinquish the right of impress- 
ment. It was America, and not Great Britian, which claimed stipulation on 
this point. The war is concluded by a peace in which no such stipulatian is 
made. — London Courier, Dec. 21th, 1814. 



Peace With The Indians. 313 

who had been victimized into participation in the war followed 
the successful negotiations at Ghent, of course, for these hapless 
wretches were no longer able to raise a hostile arm.* 

General Harrison and Lewis Cass, on the part of the United 
States, negotiated with the Delawares, Shawanees, Senecas and 
Miamis, at Greenville, where, nineteen years before, Gen. Wayne 
had held the famous treaty with Western tribes, which took the 
first half of the country from them, and the moiety had been 
taken by piecemeal, till but little was left to give. William 
Clark, Governor of Missouri, Ninian Edwards, Governor of Illi- 
nois Territory, and Hon. Auguste Chouteau, of St. Louis, treated 
with the Northwestern tribes, among whom were the Pottowat- 
tomies, in July, 1815, on the east bank of the Mississippi river, 
just above the mouth of the Missouri. The Sac nation did not 
attend this convention, but the September following a treaty was 
made with such portions of their tribe as felt friendly with the 
United States. Black Hawk was not among these, and did not 
attend the treaty. This tenacious brave still clung to British 
interests, even after hope had fled, and remained in this moody 
frame of mind till the western march of settlements began to 
encroach on the rights of his tribe, by occupying the beautiful 
Hock River Valley, in 1832. Then came the Black Hawk war, 
which will be told in its place. 

Kaskaskia was at this time the capital of Illinois Territory, where the execu- 
tive court was held in an antique French building made daring' that early civi- 
lization that had been begun in the valley of the Mississippi, at this historic 
place, in 1700. Here its charitable mantle had fallen upon three generations, 
and here it now extended good-fellowship to the new regime though about to 
bring more progressive institutions to the country destined to overshadow 
French social life in ll'inois. Several of the buildings erected in the past cen- 
tury are still standing here in a good state of preservation. Its civil and church 
records are very extensive, dating back to the time of its first settlement. 

An interesting chapter of early French history and heraldry, has lately been 
gleaned from them by E. G. Mason Esq. of Chicago, which was published in 
the Chicago Times. It brings to light new data for the romancer, as well as 
the historian. Some future day Kaskaskia, as the old mediaeval land mark be- 
tween savage and civilized life, will be looked upon with increasing interest. 
But. as yet, the onward march of western settlments have exhausted nearly all 
their force in laying the dimension stone, on which to build permanent institu- 
tions in the broad wilds, to which the war of 1812 opened the doors. 

*The history only of such campaigns in this war has been written here 
as bore relation to tlie northwest. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Great West as a New Arena for Progress — Religious Free- 
dom — Its Effects — Distributive Versus Concentrated Lear- 
ning — Our Norman Pedigree and Its Effects— The Lakes a 
Highway to the West — Fort Dearborn Rebuilt — Preliminary 
Survey for the Illinois and Michigan Canal — John Kinzie 
Returns to Chicago — Indian Treaty Relinquishing Lands 
from Chicago to the Illinois River — Illinois Admitted Into 
the Union as a Sovereign State — Its Northern Boundary 
Extended — Reasons for it — Chicago The Central Key of 
The Nation. 

When universal enthusiasm in an^ one direction dissolves into 
apathy from exhaustion of the forces which pulled in that direct- 
ion, then comes an epoch when mankind enter upon new fields 
of labor quite different from the ones that have last engrossed 
their attention, and new energies that have long lain dormant are 
awakened into life. Such a point was reached when Europe 
sheathed the sword after the downfall of Napoleon in 1814. 
Renown at the cannon's mouth was no longer sought after, for it 
was evident to the simplest understanding, that industry to build 
up what war had torn down would pay best, and with these nobler 
purposes in view, Europe and America went to work. 

England's problem was how to keep the balance of trade in her 
favor, and how to pay the interest on her public debt which had 
so recently been contracted. America's was how to build turn- 
pikes, canals and school houses throughout the, as yet, unknown 
and illimitable northwest. Both nations set about their respec- 
tive callings immediately, to fulfill which, the inventive genius 
of the artisan was stimulated, and new machinery sprang into 
existence by which creative power to supply the wants of man 
was multiplied. 

Besides this, America on her part brought to her aid new 
achievements in religion and public policy. The State was re- 
lieved from any responsibility in the former, each individual 
conscience being left free to choose its own forms of worship due 

(314) 



Distributive Learning. 315 

to divine grace. Here it is not too much to say that to the 
west belongs the honor of sweeping away every vestage of legal 
authority over religion from the first, while in "New England a 
public tax in the early day was levied for the support of the 
gospel by the authority of the State."" This one idea is worth 
more than all the moral results of Xapoleon's campaigns, which 
employed the available forces of nearly all Europe for more than 
ten years. The prosperity of the west is in part due to this 
principle, nor has its exemplary blessings stopped where they 
began, but by their moral force have already undermined the 
religious policy of England by presenting a contrast so much in 
favor of individual accountability when pitted against state au- 
thority in matters of conscience, f 

In ancient times the fruit of the tree of knowledge was forbidden 
to the masses, and a penalty attached to those who tasted it. Now, 
the interest of neither king, priest or pedagogue is advanced by 
a monopoly of this boon. On the contrary, it is presented to 
the people under the most enticing forms which universities, col- 
leges, schoolhouses, books and newspapers are able to offer. Un- 
der this condition, the philosophy which once gave such singular 
fame to Confucius, Zoroaster, Piato and others, and later to Co- 
pernicus, LaPlace and their kindred spirits, is now familiar to 
millions of men, and within the reach of every one. America 
was offered as a held where this learning could be cultivated on 
a new soil, where there was no danger to be apprehended from 
the overshadowing influences of clannishness in politics or relig- 
ion, or the rights of feudalism. The result is shown in poetry, 
song, oratory and literature. The vital forces of a nation are on 

* In 1638 the following- appeared iu the Colonial Records of Massachusetts, 
Vol. 1, p. 240: 

"Ihis Court, takeins: into consideration the necessity of an eqnall contribu- 
tion of all comon charges in townes, and observing that the cheife occation of 
this defect hearin arriseth from hence that many of those who are not freemen 
nor members of any church do take advantage thereby to withdraw thier helpe 
in such voluntary contribution as are in vse — It is therefore hearby declared, 
ev'ry inhabitant in any towne is lyable to contribute to all charges both in 
church and comonwelthe whereoff hee doth or may receive benefit; and withall 
it is also ordered that such inhabitants who shall not voluntarily contribute 
p'portionately to his ability wth other freemen of the same towne to all comon 
charges, as well as for upholding the ordinances in the churches as otherwise, 
shal be compelled thereto by assessment and distress, to bee levied by the cun- 
stable." 

Modifications of this old law inherited from England, too numerous to men- 
tion, have had place in various New England States, even since they, with the 
other colonies, gained their independence; and it is still within the memo:y of 
the middle-aged men of our day that its last vestiges were released from the 
statute books. 

t The modification of England's system of tithes is a proof of this assertion. 



316 Norman Inheritance. 

an unremitting strain to grasp at new reaches in science and ar- 
tisanship, and life now sees abundant diversity to animate its 
pathway. 

Such is America, particularly the West, in her crowning glory. 
Among those who live in this age of activity there are censors 
who protest against its turmoil, and sigh for the quietude of olden 
times. Perhaps the restive spirits of the ambitious West would 
run mad without the restraining influence of these counselors. 
They may be necessary to prune off the tangent points which 
may be called the deformities of our cycle in history, neverthe- 
less unparalleled in grandeur — a cycle in which not such archi- 
tectural piles as the Pyramids, the Pantheon or the Coloseum 
have been built by enforced labor, but one in which humbler 
edifices, dedicated to science and religion, have been distributed 
throughout the land. Mental alchemy has economized her most 
potent forces within unpretentious domicils; and where this is 
the universal condition, national issues hang upon the turn of a 
subtle power, gathering its force from a considerate public opin- 
ion as a result of distributive instead of concentrated learning. 
This force is comparatively perfect when it is adequate to check- 
mate the sinister purposes of private ambition, used against the 
public interest; and that it should ever be up to this stand- 
ard, is essential to the success of a Republican form of govern- 
ment. 

* From the ancient Normans, have we undoubtedly inherited 
through ancient Briton blood, our love of literature, and our 
ambition to outrival the rest of the world in national grandeur, 
and although Americans love to date their patent from Plymouth 
Pock or Jamestown, it can only be claimed that these were way 
stations, on the road from the original starting point. The 
literature of the ancient Normans and even their mythology, is 
a sublime study of which their descendants, though diluted with 
the evolutions of centuries, may justly be proud. Their brain 
power has crept through the attenuations of European revolutions, 
and like the whirlwind, has seemed to gather force, till it has 
found its way to the great interior of North America, to set up a 
nucleus, around which to build up our States as soon as the coun- 
try became accessible to settlers. The termination of the war of 
1812 opened the gates to it, down to whi3h time the intrigues of 

* The Normans or North men settled in Norway, as emigrants from Asia, 
while Rome was in her glory. They settled Iceland in 860, and Greenland 
in 986. They conquered both England and France in the day of their glory, 
and in 1066/Williamthe Conqueror, a pure Norman, became king of England, 
many generations after his people had first overrun the country and settled there. 
From this period dates the commencement of England's greatness. 



Fort Dearborn Rebuilt. 317 

Spain, the lingering power of the English on the lakes, and the 
Indian occupation, were insurmountable barriers to emigration. 
The true pioneer spirit now began in earnest. The great chain 
of lakes as a highway to the far west, rapidly grew into import- 
ance, and soon became a rival of the Ohio river, which had hith- 
erto been the only road to the west, except the track of the emi- 
grant wagon through the crooked paths of the wilderness. 

Chicago was now thought of again with increasing interest — 
not merely as a suitable place for a fort, which should command 
the fur trade of the back country, but as the terminus of a thor- 
oughfare between the Upper Mississippi and the lakes. With 
this end in view, President Madison, in his message at the open- 
ing of Congress, in 1814, recommended its attention to the im- 
portance of a ship canal, connecting the waters of Lake Michigan 
at Chicago, with the Illinois river. This was the first official 
mention of such a scheme, however much it might have been 
talked of among the geographers of the country; and the next 
year, the Secretary of War, in his instructions to General Harris- 
on, D. Mc Arthur and John Graham e, recommended the erection 
of military posts, connecting Chicago with St Louis, by way of 
the Illinois river.* The attention of the war department appears 
to have been ever directed to the importance of this thoroughfare, 
since its necessity had become apparent by the purchase of Lou- 
isiana, and especially after its practicability had been assured by 
the successful termination of the late war with England. A year 
later, in 1816, the war department gave orders for the rebuilding 
of Ft. Dearborn. Captain Hezekiah Bradley, who had entered 
the United States service April 10th, 1814, and whose honor- 
able record had won confidence in his abilities, was commissioned 
for the undertaking.! ^ s chance would have it, he arrived on 
the ground with his men (two companies) on the 4th of July, 
just thirteen years after his predecessor, Captain Whistler, had 
landed with his men, to build the first fort.$ 

The bones of the victims of the massacre of 1812 still laid 
scattered over the sand-drifts, amongst the sparse growth of 
bunch grass and stunted shrubbery that grew there, and thus re- 
mained till 1822, when they werp parefully gathered and buried 
with the measured respect of militirv etiquette, and they are 
now a part of the dust beneath the feet of a countless throng of 
busy citizens. The new fort was bui.t on the same spot where the 
first had stood before its destruction, lu consisted of a single 

*Am. State Papers, Vol. II, p. 13. 

tAm. S'ate Papers, Vol. I, p. 633. 

t-Tacob B. Varnum, of Massachusetts,was appointed Factor, andChas. Jouett, 
of Virginia, Indian Agent. 



318 John Kinzie Betums to Chicago. 

block-house, immediately east of which were barracks for the 
soldiers, and other buildings for storage, etc., the whole enclosed 
with high palisades. Besides re-buildiug Ft. Dearborn, the gov- 
ernment sent Major Long to make a preliminary survey of the 
rivers between Chicago and the Illinois river, to ascertain the 
practicability of a ship-canal uniting them. * 

During the summer, Mr. John Kinzie returned with his fam- 
ily to Chicago. Owing to the friendship which the Indians had 
entertained for him, his house had been spared from the flames, 
and during his absence of four years, a Frenchman named Du- 
Pin, resting under the usual immunity from Indian depredation 
vouchsafed to his nation, had occupied Mr. Kinzie's house a part 
of the time as a trading-station. 

The same year at St. Louis, an imj)ortant treaty was concluded 
with the Indians, as follows: 

Treaty with the Ottawas, Chtppeyvas and Pottayvattomies. 

A treaty of peace, friendship and limits, made and concluded between Ninian 
Edwards, William Clark, and Auguste Chouteau, commissioners plenipotentiary 
of the United States of America, on the part and behalf of said States of the 
of the one part, and the chiefs and warriors of the united tribes of Ottawas, 
Chippewas, and Pottawattomies residing- on the Illinois and Milwaukee rivers 
and their waters, and on the southwestern parts of Lake Michigan, of the other 
part. 

Whereas, a serious dispute has for some time past, existed between the con- 
tracting parties relative to the right to a part of the lands ceded to the United 
States by the tribes of the Sacs and Foxes on the third day of November, one thou- 
sand eight hundred and four, and both parties being desirous of preserving an har- 

* The following facts relative to the topography of the country around Chicago 
in 1816, are taken from his report to George Graham, Secretary of War. After 
describing the Illinois, the Desplaines and the Kankakee rivers, he speaks of trie 
Chicago river, and calls it " merely an arm of the lake." The north branch he 
sets down as thirty miles long; and continues, "it receives a few tributaries. 
Tine south branch has an extent of only five or six miles, and has no supplies 
except from a small lake," (evidently what was Mud lake a few gears ago). 
" The river and each of its branches are of variable widths, from fifteen to fifty 
yards, and for two or three miles inland have a sufficient depth of water to ad- 
mit vessels of almost any burden. The entrance into Lake Michigan, however, 
which is thirty yards wide, is obstructed by a sand-bar about seventy yards 
broad, upon the highest part of which the water is usually no more than two 
feet deep. # * * The water course, which is already opened between the 
river Desplaines and Chicago river, needs but little more excavation to render it 
sufficiently capacious for all the purposes of a canal." 

The report of K. Graham and Joseph Phillips, dated Kankakee, April 4, 1819, 
concludes with the following: "The route by the Chicago, as followed by the 
French since the discovery of the Illinois, presents at one season of the year an 
uninterrupted water communication for boats of six or eight tons burden, be- 
tween the Mississippi and the Michigan lake. At another season, a portage of 
two miles; at another, a portage of seven miles, from the bend of the Plien 
(Desplaines), to the arm of the lake. And at another a portage of fifty miles 
from the mouth of the Plien to the lake, over which there is a well beaten wagon- 
road. Boats and their loads are hauled by oxen and vehicles, kept for that pur- 
pose by the Fr nch settlers at Chicago. 

Am. State Paper, Mis. Vol II, P. 555. 



Cession of Lands. 319 

monious and friendly intercourse, and of establishing" permanent peace and 
friendship, have, for the purpose of removing all difficulties, agreed to the fol- 
lowing terms : 

Art. 1. Thesaid chiefs and warriors, for themselves and the tribes they repre- 
sent, agree to relinquish, and hereby do relinquish, to the United States, 
all their right, claim and title to all the land contained in the before-mentioned 
cession of the Sacs and Foxes, which lies south of a clue west line from the south- 
ern extremitv of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river. And they moreover 
cede to the United States all the land contained within the following bounds, 
to wit: beginning on the left bank of the Fox river of Illinois, ten miles above 
the mouth of said Fox river; thence running so as to cross Sandy creek ten 
miles above its mouth; thence, in a direct line, to a point ten miles north of the 
west end of the Portage, between Chicago creek, wmich empties into Lake Mich- 
igan, and the river Des Plaines. a fork of the Illinois; tnence in a direct line, 
to a point on lake Michigan, ten miles northward of the mouth of Chicago 
creek; thence, along the lake, to a point ten miles southward of the mouth of 
the said Chicago creek; thence, in a direct line, to a point on the Kankakee, ten 
miles above its mouth; thence, with the said Kankakee and the Illinois river, 
to the mouth of Fox river; and thence to the beginning: Provided, nevertheless , 
that the said tribes shall be permitted to hunt and to fish within the limits of 
the land hereby relinquished and ceded, so long as it may continue to be the 
property of the United States. 

Art. 2. In consideration of the aforesaid relinquishment and cession, the 
United States have this day delivered to said tribes, a considerable quantity of 
merchandise, and do agree to pay them, annually, for the term of twelve years, 
goods to the value of one thousand dollars, reckoning that value at the first cost 
of the goods in the city or place in which they shall be purchased, without any 
charge for transportation; which said goods shall be delivered to the said tribes 
at some place on the Illinois river, not lower clown than Peoria. And the said 
United States do moreover agree to relinquish to the said tribes all the land con- 
tained in the aforesaid cession of the Sacs and Foxes which lies north of a clue 
west line from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river, 
except three leagues square at the mouth of the Onisconsin river, including both 
banks, and such other tracts on or near to the Onisconsin and Mississippi rivers 
as the President of the United States may think proper to reserve: Provided, 
That such other tracts shall not, in the whole, exceed the quantity that would be 
contained in five leagues square. 

Art. 3. The contracting parties, that peace and friendship may bp permanent, 
p'omise that, in all things whatever, they will act with justice and correctness 
tow rds each other; and that they will, with perfect good faith, fulfill all the 
obligations imposed upon them by former treaties. 

In witness whereof, the said Ninian Edwards, William Clark and Auguste 
Chouteau, commissioners aforesaid, and the chiefs and warriors of the aforesaid 
tribes, have hereunto subscribed their names and affixed their seals, this twenty- 
fourth day of August, one thousand eiirht hundred and sixteen, and of the 
independence of the United State the forty-first. 

NINIAN EDWAftDS, 
WILLIAM CLARK, 
AUGUSTE CHOUTEAU. 

[Signed also by the chiefs and warriors of the Ottawas, Chippewas, and 
Potto watomies.] 

Blaciv Partridge, whose name is now nobly associated with Chicago history, was 
then chief of the Pottow atomies, and signed the treaty. 

The object in securing this strip of land was to construct a 
military road to facilitate the building of the proposed ship ca- 
nal. Of all the Indian treaties ever made, this will be remem- 
bered when all others, with their obligations, are forgotten. 
When the country came to be surveyed in sections, inasmuch as 



320 Illinois Admitted into The Union. 

the surveys on both sides of the treaty lines were not made at the 
same time, the section lines did not meet each other, and diago- 
nal offsets along the entire length of the Indian grant were the 
result. An occasional gore of land is left open to discussion as 
to what range and township it belongs, and all sectional maps 
must ever be disfigured with triangular fractions, as lasting monu- 
ments of early Indian power around Chicago. 

With the opening of the year 1817, Capt. Bradley was still 
busy in completing the various appendages to Fort Dearborn, 
such as a magazine made of brick, rescued from the ruins of the 
old fort factory building, etc. A commodious parade ground 
was also laid out, and a large field immediately south of the fort 
was enclosed with a worm fence. This was planted with corn 
and garden vegetables for the subsistence of the garrison. Con- 
venient gate-ways, both on the north and south, gave ingress and 
egress. The block-house itself was more substantially built than 
the original one, and afforded an ample assurance of safety from 
Indian outbreaks. Communications were soon opened with the 
settlements of Southern Illinois, by the way of the south branch 
of the Chicago river, Mud Lake, the Desplaines and Illinois riv- 
ers. Along this channel supplies of flour, meat and other neces- 
saries were brought to the fort by means of small row-boats, and 
the short portage from the Desplaines to the Chicago river. The 
settlements of Southern Illinois had at that time attained propor- 
tions sufficient to qualify the territory for a state in the Federal 
Union, and the next year, 1818, Nathaniel Pope, delegate to 
Congress, applied for and obtained the admission of Illinois as a 
sovereign state. Although the northern half of the state was 
then unsettled, except at a very few places; its importance was 
not overlooked by Mr. Pope, who seemed gifted with a remark- 
able intuition into the future. Illinois as a territory was bounded 
on the north by a line due west from the southern extremity of 
Lake Michigan, as shown on all maps previous to 1818. To this 
line Mr. Pope objected for the following reasons, which are copied 
from Ford's History of Illinois: 

"By the Ordinance of 1787, there were to be not less than three, nor more than 
five States in the territory northwest of the Ohio river. The boundaries of 
these States were defined by that law. The three States of Ohio, Indiana, and 
Illinois were to include the whole territory, and were to be bounded by the 
British possessions in Canada on the north. But Congress reserved the power, 
if they thereafter should find it expedient, to form one or two States in that 
part of the territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through 
the southerly bend of Lake Michigan. That line, it was generally supposed, 
was to be the north boundary of Illinois. Judge Pope, seeing that the port of 
Chicago was north of that (line, and would be excluded by it from the State, 
and that the Illinois and Michigan canal (which was then contemplated) would 
issue from Chicago, to connect the great northern lakes with the Mississippi, 
and thus be partly within and partly without the State of Illinois, was thereby 
Jed to a critical examination of the Ordinance, which resulted in a clear and 



Predictions Fulfilled. 321 

satisfactory conviction, that it was competent lor Congress to extend the boun- 
daries of a new State as far north as they pleased ; and he found no difficulty in 
convincing- others of the correctness of his views. 

But there were other and much more weighty reasons for this change of 
boundary, which were ably and successfully urged by Judge Pope upon the at- 
tention of Congress. It was known that in all confederated republics there was 
danger of dissolution. The great valley of the Mi-sissippi was filling up with a 
numerous people ; the original confederacy had already advanced westward a 
thousand miles, across the chain of mountains skirting the Atlantic; the adjoin- 
ing States in the western country were watered by rivers running from every 
point of the compass, converging to a focus at the confluence of the Ohio and 
Mississippi at Cairo ; the waters of the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, 
carried much of the commerce of Alabama and Tennessee, all of Kentucky, con- 
siderable portions of that of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, and the 
greater portion of the commerce of Ohio and Indiana, down by the Point at 
Cairo, (situate in the extreme south of Illinois,) where it would be met by the 
commerce to and from the lower Mississippi with all the States and territories 
to be formed in the immense country on the Missouri, and extending to the 
head waters of the Mississippi. Illinois had a coast of 150 miles on the Ohio 
river, and nearly as much on the "Wabash ; the Mississippi was its western 
boundary for the whole length of the State ; the commerce of all the western 
country was to pass by its shores, and would necessarily come to a focus at the 
mouth of the Ohio, at a point within this State, and within the control of Illi- 
nois, if, the Union being dissolved, she should see proper to control it. It was 
foreseen that none of the treat States in the west could venture to aid in dis- 
solving the Union, without cultivating a State situate in such a central and 
commanding position. 

What then was the duty of the national government ? Illinois was certain to 
be a great State, with any boundaries which that government, could give. Its 
great extent of territory, its unrivalled fertility of soil, and capacity for sustain- 
ing a dense population, together with its commanding position, would in course 
of time give the new State a very controlling influence with her sister States 
situate upon t. e western rivers, either in sustaining the federal union as it is, 
or in dissolving it, and establishing new governments. Iflelt entirely upon 
the waters of these great rivers, it was plain that, in case of threatened disrup- 
tion, the interest of the new State would be to join a southern and western con- 
federacy. But if a large portion of it could be made dependent upon the com- 
merce and navigation of the great northern lakes, connected as they are with 
the eastern States, a r^val interest would be created, to check the wish for a 
western and southern confederacy. 

It therefore became the duty of the national government, not only to make 
Illinois strong, but to raise an interest inclining and binding her to the eastern 
and northern portions of the Union. This could be done only through an in- 
terest in the lakes. At that time the commerce on the lakes was small, but its 
increase was confidently expected, and indeed it has exceeded all anticipations, 
and is yet only in its infancy. To accomplish this object effectual y. it was not 
only necessary to give to Illinois the port of Chicago and a route for the canal, 
but a considerable coast on Lake Michigan, with a country back of it sufficiently 
extensive to contain a population capable of exercising a decided influence upon 
the councils of the Sta'e. 

There would, therefore, be a large commerce of the north, western, and cen- 
tral portions of the State afloat on the lakes, for it was then foreseen that the 
canal would be made : and this alone would be like turning one of the many 
mouths of fh> Mississippi into Lake Michigan at Chicago. A verv large com~- 
merce of the centre and south would be found, both upon the hikes and the 
rivers. Associations in business, in interest, and of friendship, would be formed, 
both with the north and the south. A State thus situated, having such a de- 
cided interest in the commerce, and in the preservation of the whole confeder- 
acy, can never consent to disunion ; for the Union cannot be dissolved without 
a division and disruption of the State itself. These views, urged by Judge 



O Q Q 



77* <? Central Key. 



Pope, obtained the unqualified assent of the statesmen of 1R18 ; and this feature 
of the bill, for the admission of Illinois into the Union, met the unanimous ap- 
probation of both houses o> Congress. " 

That the wisdom of Mr. Pope lias been amply verified by events 
which have transpired since i860, is apparent to every one. The 
interest of Chicago was united by the strongest ties which com- 
mercial relations could bind, both to the north and the south, and 
had the southern limits of Wisconsin included the city of Chi- 
cago, the State of Illinois would have been under the complete 
control of southern influences during the earlv stages of the 
rebellion, with but slender ties to bind her to the north. On the 
hypothesis that this State turned the scale in favor of the Union 
when the question trembled in the balance, the geographical po- 
sition of Chicago may, with no impropriety, be called the centre 
key of the nation. Such it was deemed by Mr. Pope when the 
place had but two white families as residents — John Kinzie and 
Onilimette; and it is not too much to say that to the broad-guage 
spirit of Chicago, representatives in the councils of the nation, 
the administration has sometimes looked for support in issues 
of difficult solution. !N"or is it too much to say that the posi- 
tions which have from time to time been taken by the people of 
Chicago on the vital questions of the day, have been sustained in 
our national policy (not necessarily because Chicago came to their 
support), but because her people were sufficiently cosmopolitan 
to comprehend the situation, and. see at the first glance the real 
wants of the nation, for the obvious reason that within her toils, 
the East, the South and the far West are drawn. 

At this time the Mississippi river was teeming with flat boats 
engaged in the carrying trade of western productions to market, 
by the way of New Orleans. Six hundred and forty-three of 
these rude vessels were counted by a passenger, in his passage by 
steamboat up the river, on a trip in 1818.* 

This early channel of western commerce has now a rival along 
our lakes, which has already eclipsed it in importance, and points 
to their shores as the future metropolitan centres of trade and 
artisanship. 

*NiIes Register, Vol. XIV", p. 344. 



CHAPTEE XXL 

The Fur Trade of Canada Under a French Charter — TJu 
Huguenot Sailors — Dutch Rivalry — The Hudson Bay Com- 
pany — The Northwest Company Its Rival — The Two Com- 
panies Merged into One — The American Fur Company 
under John Jacob Astor — Astoria Founded, and Taken by 
the Hudson Hay Company — Mr. Astor Begins Anew at 
Mackinaw — Hardihood of the Engagees — The American 
Fur Company Establish a Branch at Chicago — Gurdon S. 
Hubbard as Clerk for the American Fur Comp>any — Arrives 
at Chicago — His Report of the Place — Descends the Des- 
plaines — His Report of the Indians and their Wigwams — 
Hostile Repartee with an Indian — The Factory System — 
First Wedding in Chicago — Great Indian Treaty at Chi- 
cago — Governor Cass Opens the Council — Three Thousand 
Indians Eat Rations at Government Expense — Speech of 
Metea — Colonel E. Childs' Description of the Country. 

Soon after Ohamplain had made the first permanent settlement 
of Canada at Quebec, in 1608, it became evident to his patron 
sovereign, the French king, that the fur trade was the great sec- 
ular interest of the country. Indeed, its magnitude was too 
tempting a bait even for the court of France, and it compromised 
its dignity by establishing a control over it by which it should 
reap a portion of its profits. Accordingly the company of St. 
Malo was formed, with chartered rights, paying a tribute to the 
French king, offset with plenary power to dole out privileges to 
the miserable courier du bois of Canada to obtain furs as best 
they could, and sell them to the company at stipulated prices. 
Serious abuses soon grew out of this monopoly, and the king was 
obliged to cast about for more competent men with whom to en- 
trust the patent, or, rather, men who would not abuse the trust 
by conniving at a contraband trade and sharing its illegitimate 
profits. Now the king was in a dilemma. It was all important 
to him that Canada should have no taint of heresy (which meant 

(323) 



324: The Hudson Bay Company. 

Protestantism), and yet among all his subjects it was difficult, if 
not impossible, always to select material for positions of trust 
without recourse to the Huguenots, who really were composed 
of the most efficient men of France at that time. Under this 
pressure, two Huguenot brothers, the DeCaens, were appointed 
to succeed the company of St. Malo in 1621. They immediately 
sailed for Quebec, and as might be supposed, enlisted a crew of 
Huguenot sailors to man their vessels for the carrying trade. All 
went smoothly till their arrival at Quebec, where the psalm sing- 
ing and prayer of the customary morning and evening devotions 
of these conscientious seamen offended the priests, as well as 
Cham plain, the governor."* Here was a fresh difficulty, that 
threatened a dead-lock on the start; but the matter was compro- 
mised by allowing the sailors to pray as usual, but not to indulge 
in psalmody while in the harbor of Quebec; "A bad bargain," 
said Champlain, the governor, "but the best I could make." 
Under these auspices the lur trade was resumed, and it soon 
brought increased revenues to the crown. Traders and priests 
advanced into the wilds — the former to gather crops of furs, and 
the latter crops of souls. These were the incentives which pushed 
French discovery into the upper lakes, and over the prairies and 
into the forests, where now crops of corn, instead of furs, are har- 
vested. 

The next drawback that affected the Canadian fur trade, was 
the rivalship of the Dutch at Albany. They could buy in the 
cheapest market and sell in the dearest, unshackeled by royal 
tributes. This competition augmented the animosity which 
nationality and religion had already enkindled between the Cana- 
dian and English settlements, and it was fanned to a flame in 
1754, when the French and Indian war commenced. 

This war having resulted triumphantly to the English, in 1759 
the whole fur trade fell into their hands as soon as they could 
take possession of the immense country then embraced within 
the limits of New France, and thus remained till the American 
Revolution had shorn from them the fairest portions of their late 
conquest. Notwithstanding this, however, the immensity of the 
English possession in those far northern regions that grow the 
best furs still ensured to the English the fur trade with no 
diminution in its volume. The English company engaged in it 
was chartered in 1670, under the name of The Hudson Bay Com- 
pany. It had no rival till one sprung into existence in 1805, 
called the North West Company. The latter pushed their trade 
into forest recluses never before entered by white men, carrying 
the Indian trade to remote Indian lodges with a success that 

* To verify this, the reader is referred to any detailed history of New France. 






The American Fur Company. 325 

astonished the old company, and in a few years forced them to 
take in the new company as partners. Thus the two rival inter- 
ests were merged into one stupendous body, under direction of 
the most wealthy and influential lords of the British realm. 

Thus matters stood till 1809, when John Jacob Astor, of New 
York, formed the bold design of bearding the British Lion in 
his den, by establishing The American Fur Company, under a 
charter from the State of Xew York. The first steps to be taken 
in the grand designs of this company, was to establish a perman- 
ent station on the Pacific Coast, at a locality which could com- 
mand the Russian trade as well as that of the Indians along the 
coast. The first ship destined for this enterprise, sailed from 
New Y^ork in Sept. 1810, doubled Cape Horn, and arrived at the 
mouth of the Columbia River the next year. A fort was built 
and named Astoria, in honor of the illustrious man who con- 
ceived the enterprise. As might be supposed, the Hudson Bay 
company looked upon this venture as a piece of unparalleled 
audacity, especially inasmuch as the English at that time claimed 
Oregon as their own territory, and they set themselves about the 
accomplishment of the ruin of their fearless rival. The next 
year, 1812, a pretext was offered them, to fulfill this design by 
the American declaration of war against England. "When the 
Hudsun Bay Co. learned this they attacked Astoria, took the Amer- 
icans prisoners, took possession of the station, and changed its 
name to Fort George. This was a severe blow to Mr. Astor, 
but he was by no means disheartened; no further steps could 
be taken to repair the damages while the war lasted, especially as 
the British fleet swept the lakes, and their emissaries were almost 
omnipresent among the northern tribes of Indians along these 
waters. But as soon as the war had closed, Mr. Astor, with char- 
acteristic energy, determined to begin anew, and established his 
headquarters at Mackinaw, as a base of operations. This was an 
undertaking not less bold than arduous. A small army of men 
must be employed to carry on the operations of the company, 
from every one of whom were expected services which would be 
looked upon as too hard for the effeminate men of our clay. Even 
the confidential clerks who took charge of the goods, enjoyed 
no immunity from the hardships of camp life in the wilderness, 
where the wolves prowled around their camp, and the owls talked 
and laughed with them at midnight.'" Happily for Mr. Astor, 
there was already an efficient force in the field, who had hitherto 
acted, each one for himself, without the advantages which come 

*lhese birds will answer a human voice in the stillness of the night, and 
give hoots in such quick succession as to resemble laughing, which fact is ascer- 
tained from personal experience of the writer. 



326 The Engagees. 

from large and concerted movements, and were ready to co-oper- 
ate with him, inasmuch as he could make it for there interest to 
do so. 

Ramsey Crooks and Robert Stuart were selected from these, to 
whom was given the control of the whole Northwest. From 
Michilimackinac, their base of operations, they sent men into every 
nook and corner of their territory, where the Indian and the 
beaver lived and grew. 

At Montreal they established a house under charge of Mr. 
Mathews, to enlist the men for service, both as clerks and voy- 
ageurs. The latter manned the boats called batteaux, into which 
the goods were packed and rowed to the various stations through- 
out the wilderness, at which places they were unloaded, and the bat- 
teaux filled with furs to be sent on their return trip to Mackinaw. 
Their record forms a page in our history never to be reproduced. 
Their daily routine w r as hard labor in rowing the heavy laden 
batteaux or carrying them and their freights across portages. 
At night the roof that coyered them was the sky, their bed the 
earth, and they were happy. They were all Canadian French, 
trained to servility, and toughened into almost incredible endur- 
ance by hard usage. The Hon. James H. Lock wood,* of Prairie 
du Chien, in a paper read before the State "Wisconsin Historial 
Society says of them : 

The traders and their clerks were then the aristocracy of the country ; and to 
a Yankee at first sight, presented a singular state of society. To see gentlemen 
selecting wives of the nut-brown natives, and raising children of mixed blood, 
the traders and clerks living in as much luxury as the resources of the country 
would admit, and the engagees or boatmen living upon soup made of hulled 
corn with barely tallow enough to season it, devoid of salt, unless they pur- 
chased it themselves at a high price — all this to an American was a novel mode 
of living, and appeared to be hard fare ; but to a person acquainted with the habits 
of life of the Canadian peasantry, it would not lo ;k so much out of the way, as 
they live mostly on pea soup, seasoned with a piece of pork boiled down to 
grease, seldom eating pork except in the form of grease that seasons their 
soup. With this soup, and a piece of coarse bread, their meals were made ; 
hence the change from pea soup to corn is not so great, or the fare much worse 
than that which they had been accustomed to, as the corn is more substantial 
than peas, not being so flatulent. These men engaged in Canada generally 
for live years for Mackinaw and its dependencies, transferable like cattle to any 
one who wanted them, at generally about 500 livres a year, or in ou- currency, 
about $83 33 ; furnished with a yearly equipment or outfit of two cotton shirts, 
one three point or triangular blanket, a portage collar, and one pair of beef 
shoes ; being obliged, in the Indian country to purchase their moccasins, to- 
bacco, pipes, and other necessaries, at the price the trader saw fit to charge for 
them. Generally at the end of five years, these poor voyageurs were in debt 
from fifty to one hundred and fifty dollars, and could not leave the country 
until they had paid their indebtedness ; and the policy of the traders was, to 

*Mr. Lockwood was born in Clinton, N. Y., in 1793. He emigrated to Green Bay in 1ST, 
and has ever since been a resident of Wisconsin or Illinois, always living a temperate life, 
and always a steadfast champion of justice. 



Chicago Branch of The American Fur Company. 327 

keep as many of them in the country as they could; and to this end they al- 
lowed and encouraged their engagees to get in debt during the live years, which 
of necessity required them to remain. 

These new hands were by the old voyagenrs called in derision, memgeurs de 
lard — pork-eaters — as on leaving Montreal, and on the route to Mackinaw, 
they were fed on pork, hard bread, and pea soup, while the old m y agent's in 
tt e Indian country ate corn soup, and such other food as could conveniently be 
procured.* These mange urs delard were brought at considerable expense and 
trouble from Montreal and other parts of Canada, frequently deserting alter 
they had received some advance in moi ey and their equipment. Hence it was 
the object of the traders to keep as many of the old voyageurs in the country as 
they could, and they generally permitted the mangeurs delard to get largely 
in debt, as they could not leave the country and yet back into Canada, except 
by the return boats or canoes which brought the goods, r.nd they would not 
take them back if they were in debt anywhere in the country, which could be 
ea-ily ascertained from the traders at Mackinaw. 

The whole country at that time was divided into districts by 
the American Fur Company, each having a principal director 
who superintended the clerks and voyaguers detailed to his sta- 
tion from the parent office at Mackinaw, allotting to each his 
especial territory. 

In the year 1817, the enterprising house of Conant & Mack, 
whose headquarters were at Detroit, had established a branch 
fur trading station at Lee's place, on the south branch of the 
Chicago river, under the superintendence of Mr. John Crafts. 
When the American Fur Company came to establish a branch at 
Chicago soon afterwards, a rivalry of interests would have fol- 
lowed immediately if both establishments had kept on; but 
rather than attempt this, the Detroit house sold out to the Amer- 
ican company, who in turn employed their men at once, inas- 
much as they were on the ground, and familiar with the required 
duties. To Mr. Crafts was given the superintendence of the post 
at Chicago, as apart of the bargain, and the former agent of the 
company, Mr. John Baptiste Beaubien was displaced. Mr. 
Craft's territory included the Rock river and Fox river countries, 
besides the immediate neighborhood of Chicago. 

Among the most efficient agents of the company was Antoine 
Dechamps. This gentleman had the agency of the whole State 
of Illinois, except the portion taken out for the Chicago Agency. 
lie was a man of education and talents, both versatile and effec- 
tive. If any imposing ceremonies among the Catholics were to 
have place, the priests always invited him to take a part, and his 
counsels were equally sought after by the Indians who could 
readily discriminate between minds of high and low degree. 
He was one of the first founders of Opa (Peoria), at which place 
he had been a law-giver and kind of deputy priest among his 
people, the French, previous to its relentless destruction un- 

* The experienced voyageurs are called hirornans or winterers, according to 

Snelling's work on the Northwest. L. U. D. 



323 Early Days of a Chicago Pioneer. 

der Captain Craig, as spoken of in a previous chapter. As agent 
of the American Fur Co., Mr. DeChamp's head-quarters were 
located at various convenient places in southern Illinois. 

Such was the situation of Chicago and the contiguous country 
in 1818, as reported by Grurdon S. Hubbard, who is at this time, 
1880, a well known citizen and living witness among us. At 
that time he was a lad in his 16th year, residing at Montreal 
with his parents. Anxious to get into the fur trade he offered 
his services as clerk to Mr. Mathews, its agent there. His youth 
was an objection, and no encouragement was given him. But by 
dint of perseverance, during the winter of 1817-8, Mr. Mathews 
finally agreed to take him providing his father would sign the 
indenture papers binding him to serve the company five years, 
at $120.00 per year. He did not believe the father would sign 
an indenture by which his son was to be taken into the wilds, out 
of the reach of his protecting care. Nor did the father believe 
that Mr. Mathews w T ould take so young a stripling into a rough 
service which required a more tenacious pith than sixteen years 
would be able to furnish. But between the mutual doubt of 
both the contracting parties, by making the bond contingent 
from one to the other, young Gurdon managed to lobby his bill 
through both houses and became duly engaged for a five years' 
term. 

On the 13th of May, 1818, every thing w T as ready, and the 
clerks and voyagers, 130 in all, started in thirteen batteaux, bound 
for Mackinaw. Their way lay up the St. Lawrence river, and 
along the shore of Lake Erie, to Toronto, thence by a portage to 
Lake Simcoe, crossing which another portage was made to Not- 
awasauga river, down which they rowed to lake Huron, thence 
along its northern shore to Mackinaw. Here they arrived on the 
4th of July, and young Hubbard was immediately set at work in 
the warehouse till the middle of September. lie was then de- 
tailed into the Illinois brigade, under Mr. DeChamps, and start- 
ed for his destination along the eastern shore of lake Michigan. 
Doubling its southern extremity, his party, consisting of about 
100 men and twelve batteaux, containing the goods, arrived at 
Chicago about the first of November, 1818. 

Here Mr. John Kinzie lived in the house he first occupied 
before the massacre, following his occupation of silversmith, rely- 
ing chiefly on the Indians for patronage. No wonder these 
simple children of nature looked upon him who could make and 
repair fire locks for their guns as a marvelous prodigy as well as 
an indispensable man among them. These mechanical accom- 
plishments, associated as they were with ability to give wise 
counsel tempered with the spirit of justice, placed Mr. Kinzie so 
high in the estimation of his swarthy friends, that his social 



The Portage Through Mud Lake. 329 

position had transcended the angry passions of war, as already 
shown in preceding pages. His family consisted of John II.. 
who has ever since lived at Chicago till his death in 1865,* and 
was highly esteemed as one of her ahle business men: Eleanor, 
who afterwards married Alexander Wolcott, Indian agent, and 
Maria, who married General Hunter, and is now living with her 
husband at Washington : Robert A. late United States paymaster 
at Chicago, who died Dec. 13th, 1ST3, and was buried in Grace- 
land Cemetery, and Mrs. Helm, daughter of Mrs. Kinzie by her 
first bnsband. Her father, Captain McKillip, was an officer in 
the British service at the time of "Wayne's campaign. Besides 
the Kinzie' family was the family of Antoine Ouilimette, a French- 
man, with a Pottawatomie wife and four children: J. B. Beau- 
hien was then awav on some tour through the conntrv, and these 
two families, besides the garrison, composed the entire population 
of Chicago, except the Indians, who at that time were far more 
numerous than t:^e whites, throughout the entire country. And 
had they been told that the new comers would eventually crowd 
tliem out and occupy the country themselves, such a prediction 
would have been received with no small measure of astonishment 
and indignation. 

After resting at Chicago three days, during which time young 
Hubbard was the guest of Mr. Kinzie, he started with his party 
for their destination, which was the territory under the superin- 
tendence of Mr. DeChamps. The batteaux were again loaded, 
and they paddled up the tranquil waters of the south branch of 
the Chicago river, sending tiny ripples among the tall grasses on 
each bank of the stream, which were then but a monotonous al- 
luvial of mud, in no respect different from what they were when 
Marquette first passed them, one hundred and fifty-six years and 
two months before. After rowing about to the present site of 
Bridgeport, a portage had to be made to the Desplaines. This 
was a laborious task. The water was unusually low, and mud 
lake, the natural estuary between the two streams, was an unin- 
viting succession of mud-bars and stagnant pools, where sun fish, 
frogs and tadpoles were huddled together in close quarters. See- 
ing the work before them, it was deemed advisable to encamp 
till the portage could be made without damage to the store of 
goods of which their freight consisted. This done, package after 
package was carried on the shoulders of the men nine miles to 
the banks of the Desplaines. The empty batteaux were polled 
or dragged through Mud lake and transported to the Desplaines 

*He died June 21st. on board the ears, near Pittsburgh. He had conversed 
in his usual vein of agreeableness to the last moment: and was in the act of 
giving alms to a poor woman, when he expired without warning. 



330 Indian Architecture. 

with the goods, but not without many a heavy strain. After the 
portage was made and the party were gliding down the Des- 
piaines, congratulating themselves that they should meet no more 
obstructions on their way, they suddenly dame upon sand-bars in 
the river that in its low stage of water extended from shore to 
shore, and the goods had to be again taken out of the batteaux 
and carried over them, as well as the batteaux themselves. By 
these tardy advances the Illinois river was finally reached, down 
which they paddled their way to finally disband into small 
parties, each of which had some particular station allotted to 
them respectively, as a trading post under the general direc- 
tion of Mr. DeChamps, the agent. 

The Pottawatomies were then the all-prevailing Indian power 
of central and northern Illinois. Their principal village was 
near the present site of Utica, on the Illinois river, and numbered 
about 2000 inhabitants. At the mouth of the Mazon river they 
had a village of 700 inhabitants, of which Wabansie was chief. 
They also had villages at Cashe Island on the Desplaines, at Mount. 
Joliet, Kankakee, and various other places besides Chicago, all ot 
which Mr. Hubbard reports with accurate details of their social con - 
ditions, and the style of their architecture, if an Indian camp 
deserves that name. They were made of flags, woven and lapped 
ingeniously together, like a web of cloth. This was wound around 
a frame work of poles set up in a tripod, or rounded at the top 
and bent over so as to form a cone-shaped roof. Through this an 
aperture was made at the top for the smoke to escape. The floor 
consisted of mats spread around the outermost circumference, while 
the centre w r as the bare ground, on which the fire was made. 
Around this all could sit in a circle facing each other. Their beds 
svere skins thrown over the mats. The door w T as an opening in 
the wall of drapery enclosing the lodge, over which a blanket or 
skin was suspended. All slept soundly in this simple shelter with- 
out fear of burglars, and many a night has my informant, Mr. Hub- 
bard, reposed after the toils of camp life in these lodges with his In- 
dian friends. Almost all of Mr. Hubbard's experience was of a 
friendly character, but on his way towards St. Louis he made a 
short stop at Peoria, in company with Mr. DeChamps, and at this 
place encountered a beligerent Indian which adventure he has 
told in Parlance's History of Peoria, as follows: 

Chicago Dec. 30th, 1867. 
C. Ballance, Esq. 

Dear Sir: In reply to yours of the 26th, I have to say that I was in Peoria the 
last clays of 1818, for the first time, on my way to St. Louis passing- there, re- 
turning- about the 20th November, find wintering- about one mile above Henne- 
pin. It was my first year as an Indian trader. 

As we rounded the point of the hike", above Peoria, on our down trip, noticed 
that old Fort Clark was on fire, just blazing up. Reaching it, we found about 
200 Indians congregated, er joying- a war-dance, painted hideously, with scalps 



Traffic With The Indians. 331 

on fcheir spears and in their sashes, which they had taken from the heads of 
Americans in the war with Great Britain, from 1812 to 1815. They were danc- 
ing-, rehearsing their deeds of bravery, etc. These were the only people then 
there or in that vicinity. I never knew of a place called Creve-Cceur. . . . 

1 have a vivid recollection of my first arrival there. A warrior, noticing me 
(then a boy of 16), asked Mr. De'-Champs, the chief of our expedition, who I 
was. He replied that I was his adopted son, just from Montreal; but this was 
not credited. The Indian said I was a young American, and seemed disposed 
to quarrel with me. Des Champs, wishing to mix with the Indians, left a man 
en the boat with me, telling him not to leave, but take care of me, not to go 
out. Through this man, I learned what the purport of the conversation was. 
The Indian remained at the bow of the boat, talking to me through this man, 
who interpreted, saying, among other things, that 1 was a young American, 
and taking from his sash scalp after scalp, saying they were my nation's, he saw 
] was frightened. I was never more so in my life, fairly trembling with fear. 
His last effort to insult me was taking a long-haired scalp, . . . (Here the 
Colonel describes the particular way in which the Indian made it very wet, and 
then proceeds) and then shaking it so that it sprinkled me in the face. In a 
moment all fear left me, and 1 seized Mr. DesChamp's double-barreled gun, 
took good aim, and fired. The man guarding me was standing about half way 
between us, and, just as I pulled the trigger, he struck up the gun, and there- 
by saved the life of the Indian, and perhaps mine also. It produced great con- 
fusion, Des Champs and all our men running to their boats. After a short con- 
sultation anion;? the old traders, Des Champs ordered the boats to push out. and 
we descended the stream and went down three or four miles, and camped en the 
opposite side of the river. That was the first experience of hostile array with 
my red brethren. Yours, etc., 

G. S. Hubbabd. 

After eacli party of Mr. De Champ's men had distributed 
themselves at various stations, which were generally on the bank 
of some stream, the first business was to secure their goods in a 
kind of store built of logs, in the rear of the building in which 
they lived. This done, all but two or three sallied forth into the 
hack country, in squads of two or more, to seek the locality where 
the Indians were transiently encamped for a hunt. Having found 
them, the bartering began. Blankets, knives, vermilion and 
trinkets were spread in tempting display, as a shopman would 
exhibit his goods in show windows. The furs obtained for these 
were carried back to the stations, and a new recruit of goods 
brought out for exchange. In this way the winter was spent, and 
when spring opened, the wdiole corps of traders returned to 
Mackinaw, with their batteaux loaded with the results of their 
winter's trade. 

The Indians gave up the fur hunting, and betook themselves to 
their lodges in time to dig up the ground with sharp sticks and 
plant a crop of the ever essential corn for subsistence. This rou- 
tine was repeated annually by the traders and Indians, till the 
beaver and other fur -bearing animals vanished before the plow 
and spade of civilization. 

Besides the garrison and the American Fur Company at Chicago, 
was the Indian agency, an indispensible institution wherewith to 
settle disputes which might arise between them and the whites, 



332 Factory System. 

and to keep tliem in good humor by the judicious distribution of 
occasional presents. This was established in 1817, shortly after 
the completion of the fort, and Charles Jowett,* of Kentucky, 
appointed to its charge with a salary of one thousand dollars per 
year. The factory system established at various places on the 
frontier had for its principal object the fulfillment of such clauses 
in Indian treaties as bound the United States to supply them 
with goods for sale, but the energy and thrift of private enterprise 
always outrivals any project undertaken by the unwieldly ma- 
chinery of government. Hence the establishment of the Ameri- 
can Fur Company soon made the U. S. factory at Chicago a useless 
institution ; for although the factor, Jacob Yarnum, was instruct- 
ed to sell goods to the Indians for ten percent, less than the price 
of the same to white men, yet the Fur Company, by their superior 
facilities for sending goods into the depths of the forest, were 
able to monopolize the trade by underselling the factor, and as a 
consequence, his duties as agent for the Government were assigned 
to the Authorized Indian agent, and the factors' offices were 
always discontinued soon after private enterprise had fulfilled the 
necessary conditions of supplying the Indians with goods. 

The following- letter from Mr. Varnum to the superintendent of Indian 
affairs at Washing-ton, was evidently written with a commendable desire to en- 
large the sphere of his usefulness to the Government at a time when the 
American Fur Co. were monopolizing the trade with the Indians; 

United States Factory, Chicago, June 20th, 1819. 

The exclusion of foreigners (the Hudson Bay Co.) from the Indian trade will, 
it is believed, justify the extension of the operation of this establisiiment. This, 
together with the consideration of the large supply of blankets and cloths now 
on hand, induces me to recommend a distribution of the goods of this factory 
among the adjacent villages lor trade, to such an extent as will insure the sale of 
nearly all by the expiration of the trading seas >n. Such a measure, I am well 
convinced will be highly gratifying to the Indians, as a great number by this 
means will be enabled to supply themselves with goods on more reasonable 
terms than could otherwise be done; nor do I apprehend any difficulty in effect- 
ing it to the advantage of the Government, as gentlemen of unquestionable in- 
tegrity have aiready applied ior such outfits. JACOB R. YARNUM. 

The above proposition was declined in a respectful letter from the Supt. at 
Washington. See Am. State Papers, Vol. II, p. 861. 

Mr. Hubbard, after his return to Mackinaw in the spring of 
1819, was the next winter detailed to Michigan, and did not pass 
through Chicago again till the fall of 1820, at which time he was 
on his way back to his old trading ground in Illinois, with the 
same companions. 

'No change had taken place in Chicago; the same garrison was 
there and Mr. Kinzie's and Ouilimette's families still lived in 
contentment amidst their wild associations, hardly dreaming of 

* His name is spelled Jowett in the State Papers but in the histories of the day 
incorrectly spelled Jcwett. 



Great Indian Treaty at Chicago. 333 

what was soon to become a reality around them in the way of 
settlements. 

In the year 1816, Alexander "Wolcott, of Connecticut, suc- 
ceeded Mr. Jewett as Indian agent. Miss Eleanor Kinzie was 
then a blooming miss of twelve. She certainly had no rival 
charmers to alienate the affections of her suitor, Mr. Wolcott; or 
if she had, it is fair to assume that she would have eclipsed them, 
for the happy couple were married, Mr. John Hamlin, a justice 
of the peace from Fulton county, Illinois, officiating on the occa- 
sion, the two lovers, with commendable serenity, waiting many 
days for him to be sent for for that purpose. This may be set 
down as the first wedding ever celebrated in Chicago according 
to the approved style of modern days. Its date was 1820. 

The next year, 1821, an event took place which was significant 
of the progress of settlements in the country, as well as of the 
waning, fortunes of the Indians. The country on the east bank 
of Lake Michigan was in undisputed possession of the Pottawat- 
omies, the Ottawas and Chippewas, each holding their respec- 
tive portions; but the settlements of Michigan were rapidly 
trenching on their grounds, and the Indians were not unwilling 
to sell out to the United States, under an assurance that west of 
the lake an asylum was open to them. A treaty was therefore 
proposed for the purpose of purchasing their lands, and Chicago, 
selected as the place for it, and the time appointed for its session 
was late in August, 1821. Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan, 
and Solomon Sibley, acted in behalf of the United States; and a 
large band of Indian chiefs (among whom Metea, the Pottawat- 
omie, was conspicuous) united their wisdom to make the best 
terms they could with the United States in parting with their 
country. 

At the time of this treaty, Henry P. Schoolcraft was on his 
way from St. Louis to his headquarters, as Indian Agent, near 
the outlet of Lake Superior, and his account of this great Indian 
council at Chicago, which place he passed while it was in session, 
is detailed in his usual lucid style in his book entitled "Travels 
in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Yalley," published in 
1825. 

But first, let us listen to his description of the great fossilized 
tree, which was found in this early day in the Desplaines river, a 
little above its junction with the Kankakee. Of it he says: 
" The part which is exposed, according to our measurement, is 
fifty-one feet and a few inches in length, and its diameter at the 
largest end three feet. But there is apparently a considerable 
portion of its original length concealed in the rock." * After ex- 

*Thonias Tousey, Esq., of Virginia, visited that locality the next year, and 
verifies Schoolcraft's description of this remarkable petrifaction. 



33i Rations for Three Thousand Indians, 

amining this tree, Mr. Schoolcraft passed Mount Joliet, which he 
accurately describes, and with his party passed on up the west 
side of the Desplaines to the fording place, not far from the pres- 
ent site of Riverside. After crossing he says: "We found the 
opposite shore thronged with Indians, whose loud and obtrusive 
salutations caused us to make a few minutes' halt. From this 
point we were scarcely ever out of sight of straggling parties, all 
proceeding to the same place. Most commonly they were moun- 
ted on horses and appareled in their best manner, and decorated 
with medals, silver bands and feathers. The gaudy and showy 
dresses of these troops of Indians, with the jingling caused by 
the striking of their ornaments, and their spirited manner of 
riding, created a scene as novel as it was interesting. 
# * After crossing the south fork of the Chicago, and 
emerging from the forest that skirted it, nearly the whole number 
appeared on the extensive and level plain that stretches on the 
shore of the lake, while the refreshing and noble spectacle of the 
lake itself, with 'vast and sullen swell,' appeared beyond." 

To accommodate the numerous delegation who gathered at 
Chicago, at this council, great preparations had to be made at 
the expense of the government. Rations must be issued, not 
only to the chiefs who took part in the deliberations, but to all 
who came as spectators to grunt out gutteral approbation to the 
various speeches to be made. These numbered over 3000; they 
had wearily toiled around the southern extremity of Lake Mich- 
igan, and reached Chicago with a keen relish for the u mess of 
pottage for wdiich their birthright w r as to be sold, and he who 
would deny this poor pittance to them ought to be branded with 
anathema. The northern bank of the river immediately oppo- 
site the fort was the spot selected for the council, within the 
range of its guns — perhaps as a measure of caution. In the 
center of the grounds an open bower was erected, with rustic 
seats for the chiefs. Two or three clays were taken up in for- 
malities essential to the etiquette of Indian customs in all im- 
portant negotiations, and the council was opened by a speech, 
from Governor Cass, setting forth the objects of the convention, in 
which the politic orator emphasized his words describing the 
benefits resulting to the Indians through the money and goods 
they were to get for their lands, and after reminding them that 
their country was now nearly destitute of game, formally pro- 
posed to buy it, generously offering to let them still retain por- 
tions of it till wanted for settlements, although they were receiv- 
ing annuities for the same. 

A short pause ensued after the respectful attention which the 
Indians had given to this speech, and after two days considera- 



Cession of Indian Lands. 335 

tjon, Metea replied to it in his happiest vein of oratory. The 

following are extracts from it. 

" My Father, our country was given to us by the Great Spirit, who gave it to 
us to hunt upon, to make onr corn fields upon, to live upon, and to make our 
beds upon when we die : and he would never forgive us should we now bargain 
it away. When you first spoke to us of the lands of the St. Marys, we said we 
had a little, and agreed to sell you a piece of it ; but we told you we could spare 
no more. Now you ask us again. You are never satisfied ! We have sold you 
a great tract of land already ; but it is no: enough ! We sold it to you for the 
benefit of your children, to farm and to live upon. We shall want it all for our- 
selves. We know not how long we may live, and we wisli to leave some lands for 
cur children to hunt upon . You are gradually taking away our hunting: grounds. 
We are growing uneasy. What lands you have you may retain, but we shall 
sell no more. You think perhaps I speak in passion, but my heart is good 
towards you. We have now told you what we had to say. It is what was de- 
termined on in a council among ourselves ; and what I have spoken, is the voice 
of my nation. But do not think we have a bad opinion of you. We speak to 
vou with a good heart, and the feelings of a friend." 

Governor Cass replied to this speech, indulging in soft words 
not unjustly applied, as due in the main to the honor and good 
faith of the Indians, to which various Indian Chiefs replied in 
the usual style of Indian oratory. John Kinzie also made a 
speech, in which he refuted a charge of non-fulfillment of treaty 
obligations on the part of the United States. These delibera- 
tions lasted till the 23d, pending which no one doubted, either 
white or Indians, that the latter would come to" the terms re- 
quired of them and sell their lands, but no signs of yielding the 
issue were yet manifest in the impenetrable countenances of the 
chiefs, as the council was closed on this day by one of the chiefs 
who said : 

"My Father, it is late; I shall do no more to-day; but to- 
morrow you shall hear our final council. You are hungry by 
this time. You white men eat at certain fixed hours; we In- 
dians do what we have to do and eat when it is convenient. 

The deliberations lasted till the 29th, when the treaty was 
signed by both parties. 

The Indians made a cession of their lands in Michigan, 
amounting to over five million acres, for which the Pottowato- 
mies were to receive an annuity of five thousand dollars per an- 
num for twenty years, in specie, and the sum of one thousand 
dollars expended annually among them during the time to sup- 
port a blacksmith and a teacher, and the right to immediately 
construct roads through the territory ceded, connecting Detroit, 
Fort Wayne and Chicago, was guaranteed. 

The Ottawas were to receive a perpetual annuity of one thous- 
and dollars, and for ten years the sum of fifteen hundred dollars 
expended annually to furnish them a blacksmith and a teacher. 

The next year, 1822, passed off with few incidents to diversify 
the seenrng inanity of life on the frontier. The officers of the 



336 Narrative of E. Childs. 

garrison, together with the few citizens of the place, amused 
themselves with hunting, fishing, and such sports as their infin- 
ite leisure could invent in their immunity from the burdens of 
society, as it now is. Their supplies for subsistence were 
obtained from Detroit by a sailing vessel in her annual trip, and 
also from Southern Illinois, up the Illinois and Desplaines rivers, 
to this then obscure post, environed by a hundred miles of wilder- 
ness, without an inhabitant except the Indians. The following 
report from Col. Ebenezer Childs, of LaCrosse, to the State His- 
torical Society of Wisconsin, will give a faithful picture of the 
country at this date: 

In 1821 1 made a trip to St. Louis in a bark canoe up Fox River, across the 
Portage, and down the Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien, and thence down the 
Mississippi. I was sixteen clays on my journey, and saw but seven white men 
in the whole distance, outside the forts. 1 met one keel-boat on the Mississippi 
bound up for Fort Armstrong- at Rock Island. There was a small garrison 
opposite the mouth of the Des Moines River. There were but few Americans 
and few Spaniards at St. Louis; the inhabitants were mostly French. There 
was but one brick building in the place, and no buikhngs were located on Front 
street, or where the Jevee now is. I encamped on the sand beach, near where 
the old market is located. I remained two weeks, did my business, when I was 
advised to return by way of the Illinois River. 

I started by that route, and the next day was taken down with the ague and 
fever, and the day following one of my m<m was also taken with the same com- 
plaint, which lett me with one Indian and one Frenchman to paddle my canoe. 
I did not provide a sufficiently large stock of provisions when I le.'t St. Louis, 
presuming that I could get plenty on the Illinois. But all I was able to obtain, 
was one ham fuli of maggots, and one peck of Indian meal. I saw but one 
house from the mouth of the Illinois to Fort Clark, where Peoria now is, at 
which latter place one French trader resided. When we reached there, I was 
completely exhausted, and remained a few days to recruit a little, when we left 
to prosecute our journey. We continued up the Illinois to the junction of the 
Kankakee and Eau Plaine, and thence up the Eau Plaine to where I suppos d 
we had to make a portage to Chicago River; but I could not see any signs of 
the portage. There had been heavy rains for several days, which had so raised 
the streams that they overflowed their banks. I concluded that I had gone 
far enough for the portage, so 1 left the Eau Plaine and took a northeast direc- 
tion. After traveling a few miles, I found the current of the Chicago River. 
The whole country was inundated; I found not less than two feet of water all 
the way across the portage. 

That night I arrived at Chicago, pitched my tent on the bank of the lake, and 
went to the tort for provisions. I was not, however, able to obtain any; the 
commissary informing me that the public stores were so reduced that the gar- 
rison were subsisting on half rations, and he knew not when they would get 
any more. I went to Col. Beaubetn, who furnished me with a small supply. 
I found two traders there from Mackinaw; and as my men were all sick, I 
exchanged my tent and canoe for a horse, and took passage on board the 
Mackinaw boat as far as Manitowoc. One of our party had to go by land and 
ride the horse. There were a^ this time but two iamilies residing outside of the 
iort at Chicago, those of Mr. KiNzrE and Col. Beaubein. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The Name Chicago First Appears on School Atlases — The 
Mysteries Beyond — Adventures of James Galloway and 
What Grew out of Them — Arrival of The Clyhourns at 
Chicago — Chicago Surveyed and Laid Out in Village Tots 
— The Winnebago Scare — The Illinois and Michigan Ca- 
nal Located — Civil History of Early Chicago — County 
Organization — Adjacent Settlements — David McKee^s 
Narration. 

There are vet many persons living throughout the Northwest, 
hut little past middle age, who were horn in the old fashioned 
Xew England cottage. It stood upon a level sward of green, hut 
scanty in extent, among the diversified hills and valleys around. 
Xear its side door was the well, with its "old oaken bucket" sus- 
pended from the elevated extremity of the well-sweep by means 
of a slender pole cut from the adjacent woods. The kitchen was 
the largest and most important room in the house. One door 
led from it directly into a parlor half its size, but this door was 
seldom opened except when distinguished guests came to occupy 
the room sacred to their entertainment. Two other doors opened 
into bedrooms below, and a stairway led directly to apartments 
above, used for sleeping rooms or clutter-lofts. The fire-place 
was large enough to accommodate a large baking oven, reached 
through an aperture in the jamb on the right hand side, where 
the "rye-Indian*' bread and pork and beans were baked. All 
provident husbands kept on hand a stock of fine-split dry wood 
to heat the oven — hence the old familiar couplet: 

" You must be kind, you must be good, 
And keep your wile in oven wood." 

The fuel used for heating the room in the winter was a green 
rock-maple back-log, in front of which small dry wood, laid upon 
two iron " fire-dogs," burned brightly, and in the long winter eve- 
nings pine knots were used, that blazed with such brilliancv as 

(337) 



338 Chicago on The School Atlas. 

to send a glaring light into the remotest part of the kitchen. By 
their light a bashful suitor to one of the daughters would lose a 
few games of checkers with her brother, who had nothing to dis- 
tract his attention. While this was going on, the fair one sits 
nearer the lire, busy with her slate-pencil and arithmetic. When 
nine o'clock comes, all retire but the two lovers; but before doing 
this, the father assures the young man by inviting him nearer 
the fire. The invitation is accepted, not without some reserve on 
the part of the young man as he draws up to the fire, and conse- 
quently nearer the object of his affections. All these old-fash- 
ioned ways are changed now, bat yet some of the cottages are 
still standing that have witnessed them; and let us look into one 
of their garrets and see if we can find something to freshen our 
memories of early days. The garret is lighted by a six-light 
window in each gable end, fitted with seven-by-nine glass, and by 
their light we will look for what we wish to find. Here are the 
treadles of the old loom, that " mother's" feet have pressed with 
measured round as she twilled the web she was weaving; the 
spinning-wheel, and the wooden " finger" with which she turned 
it into a sonorous hum. Here is the old hand-reel, two feet long, 
with a cross-bar on each end like a T. Here is the flax-wheel and 
its distaff, with some of the tow still clinging to it. Xext comes 
the old " foot stove.' 1 It is a sheet-iron hox set in a wooden frame, 
in which a small sheet-iron dish of live coals is placed, on which 
" mother's" feet rest while she sits in church in the winter, he- 
fore the introduction of stoves. Ah! here comes something that 
would make the tears channel down the crow-tracks of age, if 
these original tenants of this piece of furniture could see it. It is 
the old wooden cradle, from the sides of which the hands of 
iw mother" have worn off the paint in her efforts to rock to sleep 
her rollicking "babies. It is full of a medley of cast-off relics — 
hand-cards, old newspapers, old copy-hooks filled up with straight 
marks, pot-hooks and curves. At the bottom are the old school- 
books; among which are Marshall's Spelling-book, the English 
Header, the Columbian Orator, Murray's Grammar, and lastly, 
Wpodbridge's Geography. This is what we have been looking 
for all this time, for on it the name "Chicago" first made its ap- 
pearance in our school-book literature. 

It was suggestive of reckless adventure far beyond the re- 
straints of civilization; a place around which clustered Indian 
tents, ornamented with scalps hung out to dry as we hoys 
stretched our coon skins on boards, and he who would dare to go 
there must be a prodigy of pluck. Beyond this place on our 
school maps interposed a vast plain between lake Michigan and 
the Mississippi river, on which were names of Indian tribes 
whose pronunciation set our stammering tongues at defiance. 



Western Mysteries. dZ'J 

St. Anthony's Falls, Prairie dn Chien, Ft Armstrong, on Rock 
Island, and Ft. Madison, at the Des Moines Rapids, were the 
only names on the Upper Mississippi above St. Louis, except the 
inevitable nomenclature of Indian names, which were always 
such a puzzle to us. 

The Mississippi river was as far west as our maps of the Uni- 
ted States went; but on the map of North America the immense 
void between this river and the Pacific coast was filled up with 
large spaces lettered unexplored; and on its extreme western 
verge was a stiff range of mountains, studding the Pacific coast 
like the bold headlands of a river. Here the majestic forces of 
nature crowned the mountain tops with everlasting snow, and 
warmed the valleys with perennial spring. Here were tenantless 
deserts and basins below tide water, having no connection with 
the sea — so our geographies said. Whatever else was there was 
left to conjecture, and our timid imaginations would paint the 
sublimest grandeurs of savage life, basking in the assurance of a 
perpetual lease among their mysterious and impregnable fast- 
nesses. 

Our fathers, from whose fanciful imagery the wire edge had 
been taken off by the adaptation of ways and means to ends, 
looked more practically upon the matter, and saw a glorious fu- 
ture spectacle opening before the world in the development of 
this exhaustless region of supply, though now beyond the limits 
of civilization. They beheld the vast chain of lakes on the map 
extending into the interior of a continent almost to the dividing 
ridge of the Mississippi Valley, with an eye to the useful. Here 
unmeasured plains must be upturned by the plow, farm houses 
erected, churches, school houses and highways must be built, 
cities laid out, and all the ornamentation which belongs to them 
must be introduced. Where was to be the central metropolis of 
these productions of man's handiwork in the great plateau of 
Xorth America — the high and salubrious plain from whence the 
Mississippi found its sources, where the great inland seas secreted 
their waters, like reservoirs for the use of a nation? The solu- 
tion of this was yet a sealed book whose secrets were to be re- 
vealed in their own fortuitous way. Little by little the question 
has been answered as the progress of private and public enter- 
prise has unveiled the destiny of Chicago. 

The first settlers along the alluvial intervals of the rivers in 
Ohio and Indiana, especially in the wooded districts, had a sorry 
experience for the first few years; not for want of supplies 
wherewith to subsist, for these were easily obtained from the 
forest, but the fever and ague was ever present during the mala- 
rial months of spring and fall, and few escaped it sooner or later. 
It was not generally known then that the Illinois prairies were 



340 Adventures of James Galloway. 

almost exempt from this scourge, and even if it had been, its 
great distance into the wilds was an objection to emigrants who 
journeyed west in their own wagons. 

At the close of the war of 1812 James Galloway, a native of 
Pennsylvania, emigrated to Erie Co., Ohio, in this way, where 
he lived till 1824. He then resolved to try his fortune on the 
Illinois prairies at or near Chicago, where the ague was less 
prevalent than at his home in Ohio. With this end in view he 
obtained a wagon with much exertion, and secured the services 
of a Mr. Slater, an experienced trapper, to accompany him to his 
new destination. On the 1st of September, his outfit, consisting 
of a gun, an Indian tomahawk, ammunition, steel traps, blankets 
and a sack of corn meal, was ready, and the two started with a 
horse and wagon, westward into the wilds. Besides shooting the 
necessary game on which to live as they traveled day after day, 
they set their traps near their encampment each night, and thus 
obtained a stock of furs which increased daily, till their arrival 
at Ft. Wayne. Here they disposed of them and resumed their 
journey through the forests, following military roads or Indian 
trails, to St. Joseph, which was the next point to be reached. 
Thence they followed the old Indian trail which had for many 
years been a well known route from Detroit westward around the 
southern extremity of Lake Michigan, thence branching off in 
various directions to important points in Indian estimation, such 
as Chicago, Rock Island, and the Illinois river at Starved Rock, 
Mr. Galloway and his companion took the Chicago trail. It led 
principally along the sands of the lake and brought them directly 
to the spot by a better road than the average path through the 
wilderness. Here Mr. Galloway made the acquaintance of Billy 
Caldwell and Alexander Robinson, two notable Indian chiefs, 
often mentioned in preceding pages, and a Scotchman named 
Wallace, all of whom showed him many favors, and subsequently 
were of essential service to him. Besides these, Mr. Galloway 
mentions Mr. John Kinzie, Dr. Woolcott and Ouilimette, as 
permanent residents, and several others who were only transient 
visitors at the place. Such was Chicago, late in the autumn of 
1824. 

After sufficient rest, Mr. Galloway with his companion started 
into the interior, and arriving at the present locality of Marsailles 
they found a squatter named Weed. Of him Mr. Galloway 
bought his title, which was nothing more than a moral claim to 
twenty acres of land of which he had taken possession and im- 
proved with a log cabin. Here he wintered and made prepara- 
tions for a home. The following spring he returned to his family 
in Ohio by way of the lakes, and suddenly surprised them by his 
appearance in their midst without warning, as no means were 



Adventures of James Galloway. 341 

then at hand to communicate from one distant point to another, 
and they had received no tidings from him since he had left home 
the previous fall. His adventures were soon told, and his plans 
laid to emigrate to Illinois. The next year every thing was made 
ready, and he with his family embarked from Sandusky, in 
October. Their vessel landed at Detroit, where, after making a 
week's stop, it sailed for Mackinaw. Here the captain fell among 
some boon companions, and wasted a week's fine weather in dissi- 
pation, although the season of autumnal storms was near at hand. 
About the middle of October the final start was made for Chicago 
during a severe storm. The vessel rode the waves successfully 
till rounding the island of St. Helena she struck a rock and sunk 
on the beach within three or four rods, of the shore. Fortunately 
all the passengers reached the land, but through a drenching rain, 
and here they remained two days without shelter, amidst the 
tamarac swamps of the wild place, living on such provisions as 
could be saved from the stranded vessel in the contusion of the 
hour. Mr. Galloway had on board 150 bbls. of Hour, 90 bbls. of 
salt and 15 bbls. of pork. The salt was entirely lost, but the 
flour and pork were unloaded in order to repair the vessel. The 
repairs were made by two ship carpenters who fortunately hap- 
pened to be on board as passengers. This done, the merchandise 
was re-loaded, except what was lost, and the vessel again put to 
sea, bound for the port from whence she had last started, Mack- 
inaw, which they reached after two day's sail by dint of hard 
pumping to keep the disabled vessel afloat. Here the American 
Fur Company had a vessel commanded by Capt. Ransom, about 
to sail for Chicago, on her annual trip. Mr. Galloway's griefs 
did not end here, for he was obliged to submit to extortionate terms 
in order to secure a passage for his freight and family. Besides 
paying 860.00, it was stipulated that on arriving at Chicago the 
most valuable portion of the freight should be placed in the 
hands of the American Fur Company, where it should remain 
till the 10th of the tollowing May.- On arriving at Chicago, 
however, Mr. Galloway, through the assistance of the passengers 
managed to get the flour and pork, one spinning-wheel, and one 
loom into his possession. The Fur Company retaining 1 bbl. 
cherry bounce, 1 bbl. peach brandy, 1 bbl. vinegar, perhaps on 
the ground that they could appreciate the use of these articles 
better than a private family. 

There were then no temperance societies to bring consolation 
to Mr. Galloway for the loss of this questionable merchandise, 
all of which he had made himself, pure and tasteful. This, how- 
ever, was no time to despond; provision for the winter must be 

*Tke reasons for this unusual demand were not stated by nay informant. 



.3i2 Adventures of James Galloway. 

made immediately, and under very adverse circumstances. His 
quarrel with the American Fur Company had made it impossi- 
ble for him to get quarters in Chicago where their influence 
was potent, and out for the kindness of Alexander Robinson, he 
might have been obliged to camp out all winter. He owned a 
vacant house at Hard Scrabble (Lee's place), and offered it to 
him rent free, which proposal Mr. Galloway accepted, and at 
once occupied the place with his family for the winter. 

Joseph LaFromboise, Mr. "Wallace, a Mr. Weicks, and an In- 
dian trader (well known to some of the old settlers of Chicago, 
still living) named Barney Lawton, were at the time living at 
Lee's place, and were near neighbors to Mr. Galloway. ]STow the 
tide began to turn with him; Mary, his oldest daughter, was a 
comely miss of fourteen years, and began to receive invitations 
to dances and other social gatherings at Chicago, and though the 
prudential mother declined these overtures, she often entertained 
Chicago society at her house, and frequently on these occasions, 
were brought back to her bottles of the delectable, drawn from 
the Malmsey butt, which the Fur Company had retained unjustly, 
as Mr. Galloway claimed, and in this way these free wines were 
shared partially by the original owners, not as a measure of jus- 
tice, but with that air of profusion which often accompanies dis- 
sipation in its early fascination, ere its excesses have crossed the 
Rubicon between decorum and degradation. When this line of 
demarkation was left to the censorship of public opinion only, 
its restraints were stronger and more salutary than when the tem- 
perance issue is complicated with politics to lacquer over private 
schemes with a shallow diguise of public good, as is sometimes 
the case now, particularly in large cities. But Chicago at this 
time was only a trading post, and was subject to little or no re- 
straint except what grew out of a natural discrimination between 
justice and injustice, and though it was made up with savage life 
and the active spirits of civilized life, that brimmed over its con- 
fines, yet no acts of violence were committed, and in the main 
the ends of justice were answered and the people averaged as 
temperate then as now. 

The fur trade was the great interest of the place, and it would 
have been premature at that time to have attempted the intro- 
duction of any other, farther than to supply the limited wants of 
the place. Ouilimette kept a flock of sheep by dint of much care 
to protect them from the ravages of the wolves. The flesh of 
these animals found a ready market for home consumption, but 
the wool was a drug, and Mr. Galloway purchased what he want- 
ed of it for twenty -five cents per pound. This the industrious 
Mary carded, spun, and knit into stockings, which she sold readily 
at from seventy -five cents to one dollar a pair, according to the 



Archibald Clybourn Arrives at Chicago. 343 

length. This young Miss is now, 1880, Mrs. Archibald Clybourn, 
residing on Elstou Ave., Chicago; and to her is the writer in- 
debted for the preceding facts relating to her father. In the 
spring following their residence at Lee's place, 1827, her father, 
Mr. Galloway, moved with his family to the home he had pur- 
chased the year before. His transportation to the place was 
effected by means of a large, boat fashioned on the dug-out plan, 
which he made himself from a black walnut tree, on the banks of 
the Chicago river. Taking advantage of the us'ual spring freshets, 
he navigated this vessel, freighted with his family and all his 
valuables, through Mud lake and down the Desplaines and Illi- 
nois rivers, to his home. The place was then called the Grand 
Rapids of the Illinois. Here Mr. and Mrs. Galloway spent the 
remainder of their days, highly esteemed by all who knew them. 
Mrs. Galloway died in"l830, and Mr. Galloway survived till 1864, 
when he died, and many of the present inhabitants of Chicago 
will doubtless remember reading the becoming obituary notices 
which the Chicago papers gave of him at the time. 

In a former chapter, the adventures of Margaret and Elizabeth 
McKenzie were related, and it w T illbe remembered that Elizabeth, 
after having been raised from her childhood among the Shaw- 
anese, married a Mr. Clark, a trader near Detroit, by whom she 
had two children, John K. and Elizabeth Clark; and her father 
getting news from her and his older child Margaret, sought and 
found them, and both of the captives left their husbands, and 
with their children returned with their father to Virginia, their 
old home. Soon after their return, Elizabeth married a Mr. 
Jonas Clybourn, and Mr. Archibald Clybourn, so well known 
as one of the esteemed early citizens of Chicago, was the oldest 
son of this union. Brim full of the spirit of adventure, nurtured 
into activity by the associations of frontier life, he made his 
appearance in the little town of Chicago on horseback, late in the 
summer of 1823. Alighting at the house of John Kinzie, he 
presented his diploma. This consisted of his elastic step, his 
honest countenance and his wiry form, hardened into ready ser- 
vice by his training. He had made the long journey on horse- 
back armed with a rifle, with which to procure food on the way, 
and equipped with a blanket for a bed at night. His story was 
soon told to Mr. Kinzie; he was the son of Elizabeth, who was 
sister of Margaret. This reached a sensitive spot in Mr. Kinzie's 
heart, and he employed him at once as a clerk in his store, which 
he then kept on the north bank of the river. 

After remaining in his service a year, young Archibald went 
back to Virginia for the purpose of bringing his father and 
mother to Chicago, as he had determined to make the place his 
permanent home, and wished to settle his parents close by him, 



344 Reminiscences of Mrs. Clybourn. 

where lie could cherish and protect them in their declining years. 
In accordance with this filial resolution, they with himself, came 
to Chicago the next year, arriving on the 23d of August, 1824. 
They made the journey in a lumber wagon, John K. Clark, the 
oldest son of Elizabeth (Mrs. Clybourn), by her first husband, 
accompanying them, to assist in attending to the wants of the 
parents on the way.* On arriving at Chicago, Mrs. Clybourn 
readily recognized the place as a familiar spot, where the Indian 
father who adopted her had taken her with his family in his 
erratic wanderings during her captivity. Several times had he 
been here to trade with Shawn e-au-kee (John Kinzie), and pay 
his respects to his brethren, the Pottawatomies, and Mrs. Cly- 
bourn felt all the more at home at the place for this reminiscence. 

On Mr. Clybourn's arrival at the place he took possession of 
a parcel of land, now known as Sheffield Addition to Chicago, 
where he built a log house and made preparations for farming. 
^Nearly the entire north half of the State of Illinois was then 
in its wild state, while the southern half was well settled, and 
Chicago was dependent on it for various supplies, of which beef 
was the one most wanted. To supply this demand, young Archi- 
bald, after having comfortably settled his parents, went into the 
business of butchering, and was obliged to go as far south as San- 
gamon county to buy his cattle. This long trip brought him 
past the home of Mr. Galloway, on the Illinois river, which w T as 
a kind of half-way station between Chicago and the settled por- 
tions of Illinois. Here amidst the dreary wastes of the broad prai- 
rie, relieved only by narrow fringes of woodland along the streams, 
Mr. Galloway's solitary home welcomed the occasional travelers 
who passed that way. This home was enlivened by the youthful 
Mary, and when young Archibald, quartered on the hospitalities 
of the venerable father, and talked over their forest adventures to- 
gether, other thoughts came to his mind, and other emotions to 
his heart, that eclipsed even the social affinities of backwoods- 
men. 

In the summer of 1829, a stylish carriage drawn by two mettle- 
some steeds, arrived at Chicago from over the southern prairies. 
In it were Mary and Archibald. She was Mrs. Clybourn now. 
In 1835 they built a fine brick house on their farm, which was 
then a model to be admired by every one who saw it, and at this 
time is still a respectable as well as commodious house, bearing 
the appearance of an ancient landmark of the prairies. Such it 
was for many years after it was first built, the whole country to 
the westward, being an open prairie of such exceeding fertility, 

*John K. Clark had been to Chicago four or five years previously, and it was 
owing- to his commendations of the place that young Archibald and others came, 
as told in a preceding chapter. 



Chicago Surveyed and Platted. 315 

that the grass in many places was tall enough to hide a horse and 
his rider. At the :ime of Mr. Cly bourn's marriage, 1829, Chicago 

consisted of the several white families and persons already men- 
tioned, and a few other emi^raiits. whose names are not remem- 
bered by those to whom the writer is indebted for the details of 
that early day. Besides these and the garrison, were perhaps a 
dozen families of half-breeds living in lints, who were more like In- 
dians than white people, and many of them cast their lot with the 
former when they were moved westward, in 1835 and ' :'•: some ot 
them were above par in those refined virtues which bring love and 
peace to the domestic circle; of these, several young airls have 
been mentioned to the writer who married respectable white men, 
and whose descendants are now among our esteemed citizens. 

In 1821 Chicago and its environs were surveyed in govern- 
ment sections.* In 1S29 Chicago was surveyed and platted into 
village lots, and a map of it engraved and published the next 
year. This was done, not by private enterprise, the usual method 
of laying out towns, but by state authority, for the purpose of 
selling lots and applying the proceeds to the construction of the 
canal, which was to connect the lakes with the Mississippi river. 
This scheme had long been thought of, and the expectation of its 
ultimate fulfillment had drawn thither a little nucleus to a future 
metropolis. On the 11th of February. 1823, the legislature of 
Illinois, then holding its sessions a: Yandalia, passed an act con- 
stituting and appointing a board of canal commissioners to make 
preliminary surveys. The next year, 1824, five different routes 
were partially surveyed, and estimates made of the cost of construct- 
ing the canal. Colonel P. Paul, an engineer of St. Louis, was 
one of the board. Their highest estimate was only 8716.11 
Xothing more was done till January 18th, 18 2 5. when the Illi- 
nois legislature passed an act incorporating the Illinois and Mich- 
igan canal, with a capital of one million dollars. The stock was 
not taken, and all hope of building the canal by the state van- 
ished. Those interested in the completion of this work, without 
which Chicago would be a forlorn hope, next looked to Congress 
for aid; and two years later, in 1827 on the 2nd of Marc":, through 
the influence of Hon. Daniel P. Cook, it came. Every alternate 
section of public land in a belt twelve miles wide, through the 
center of which the canal was to pass, was donated to the State of 
Illinois by the general government, to aid in its construction. 

Unfortunately the State was then under too heavy a load of 
debt tu avail itself of this generous endowment to build the canal, 
and its commencement was destined to be again postponed. 

Even at this date. 1827, Chicago was by no means exempt from 
Indian alarms, of which the "Winnebago Scare'' was no incon- 



F See copy Gov't Survey at Handy & Co.'s, Chicago. 



318 Hubbard? 8 Account of The Winnebago Scare. 

siderable one, and is worthy of notice, more as a record of the 
times than as an item of history as to the event itself. It has 
been well told by Gurdon S. Hubbard and Mr. II. Cunningham, 
a citizen of Edgar Co., beginning with the relation of Mr. 
Hubbard, as follows: 

"At the breaking out of the "Winnebago war, early in July, 1827, 
Fort Dearborn was without military occupation." 

Doctor Alexander Wolcott, Indian Agent, had charge of the 
Fort, living in the brick building, just within the north stockade 
previously occupied by the commanding officers. 

The old officers' quarters built of logs, on the west, and within 
the pickets, were occupied by Russell E. Heacock, and one other 
American family, while a number voyageurs, with their families 
were living in the soldiers' quarters, on the east side of the en- 
closure. The store-house and guard-house were on either side of 
the southern gate; the sutler's store was east of the north gate, 
and north of the soldiers' barracks; the block-house was located 
at the southwest and the bastion at the northwest corners of the 
Fort, and the magazine, of brick, was situated about half-way 
between the west end of the guard and block-houses. 

The annual payment of the Pottawatomie Indians occurred in 
September of the year 1828. A large body of them had assem- 
bled, according to custom, to receive their annuity. These left 
after the payment for their respective villages, except a portion of 
Big Foot's band. 

The night following the payment, there was a dance in the 
soldiers' barracks, during the progress of which a violent storm 
of wind and rain arose; and about midnight these quarters were 
struck by lightning and totally consumed, together with the 
store-house and a portion of the guard-house. 

The sleeping inmates of Mr. Kinzie's house, on the opposite 
bank of the river, were aroused by the cry of "fire" from Mrs. 

* Says Win. Hickiing, as to the cause of this war: 

Should any one be curious enough to inquire into the causes which led to, 
and brought about, this so-called " Winnebago War," let him consult " Rey- 
nolds 1 Life and Times." and also an interesting article on the subject furnished 
the Jacksonville (111.) Journal, August 17, 1871, by the Hon. Wm. Thomas, of 
that city, and which article was also reproduced in one of our city papers a few 
months since, under the head of "Fffcy Years Ago." 

This speck of war with a portion of our aboriginal inhabitants on the then 
Western frontier, was caused, like too many others of a similar character, which 
for more than two centuries past, have from time to time, been the cause which 
has deluged our frontier settlements in blood, by the wanton brutality, outrage, 
and total disregard of decency and right, perpetrated by a few semi civilized, 
drunken white men, upon a portion of the band of Winnebagoes, then en- 
camped near Prairie du Uhien, whose motto at that time seemed to be, as is too 
often the case now-a-clays, viz: " I hat the poor Indians have no rights which a 
white man is bound to respect." 



IlvManVs Account of The Wfomebago Scare. 347 

Helm, one of their number, who from her window had seen the 
liames. On hearing the alarm, I, with '.Robert Kinzie, late Pay- 
master of United States' Army, hastily arose, and only partially 
dressed, ran to the river. To our dismay, we found the canoe, 
which was used for crossing the river, filled with water; it had 
been partially drawn up on the beach and became filled by the 
dashing of the waves. Not being able to turn it over, and having 
nothing with which to bail it out, we lost no time, but swam the 
stream. Entering by the north gate we saw at a glance the sit- 
uation. The barracks and store-house being wrapped in flames, 
we directed our energies to the saving of the guard-house, the 
east end of which was on fire. Mr. Kinzie, rolling himself in a 
wet blanket, got upon the roof. The men and women, about 40 
in number, formed a line to the river, and with buckets, tubs and 
every available utensil, passed the water to him; this was kept 
up till daylight before the flames were subdued. Mr. Kinzie 
maintaining his dangerous position with great fortitude, though 
his hands, face, and portions of his body were severely burned. 
His father, mother, and sister, Mrs. Helm, had meanwhile freed 
the canoe from water, and crossing in it, fell into line with those 
carrying water. 

Some of the Big Foot band of Indians were present at the fire, 
but merely as spectators, and could not be prevailed upon to 
assist; they all left the next day for their homes. The strange- 
ness of their behavior was the subject of discussion among us. 

Six or eight days after this event, while at breakfast in Mr. 
Kinzie's house, we heard singing, faintly at first, was gradually 
growing louder as the singers approached. Mr. Kinzie recog- 
nized the leading voice as that of Bob Forsyth, and left the table 
for the piazza of the house, where we all followed. About where 
Wells street now crosses the river, in plain sight from where we 
stood, was a light birch bark canoe, manned with lo men,, rap- 
idly approaching, the men keeping time with their paddles to 
one of the Canadian boat songs; it proved to be Gov. Cass and 
his Secretary, Hubert Forsyth, and they landed and soon joined 
us. From them we first learned of the breaking out of the Win- 
nebago war, and the massacre on the Upper Mississippi. Gov. 
Cass was at Green Bay by appointment, to hold a treaty with the 
Winnebagoes and Menomonee tribes, who, however, did not 
appear to meet him in council. Xews of hostilities reaching the 
Governor there, he immediately procured a light birch bark 
canoe, purposely made for speed, manned it with 12 men at the 
paddles and a steersman, and started up the river, making a 
portage into the Wisconsin, then down it and the Mississippi to 
Jefferson Barracks below St. Louis, 

Here he persuaded the commauding officer to charter a steamer 



34S Shab-o-nee as A Spy. 

and embarking troops on it, ascended the Mississippi in search 
of the hostile Indians, and to give aid to the troops at Fort 
Snelling. On reaching the month of the Illinois River, the Gov- 
ernor (with his men and canoe, having been brought so far on the 
steamer), here left it, and ascending that stream and the Des 
Plaines, passed through. Mud Lake into the south branch of the 
Chicago River, reached Chicago. This trip from Green Bay 
round, was performed in about 13 days, the Govenor's party 
sleeping only 5 to 7 hours, and averaging 60 to 70 miles travel 
each day. On the Wisconsin River they passed Winnebago en- 
campments without molestation. They did not stop to parley, 
passing rapidly by, singing their boat songs; the Indians were so 
taken by surprise that, before they recovered from their astonish- 
ment, the canoe was out of danger. Gov. Cass remained at Chi- 
cago but a few hours, coasting Lake Michigan back to Green Baj'. 
As soon as he left, the inhabitants of Chicago assembled for con- 
sultation. Big Foot was suspected of acting in concert with the 
Winnebagoes, as he was known to be friendly to them, and many 
of his band had intermarried with that tribe. 

Shab-o-nee was not here at the payment, his money having 
been drawn ior him by his friend, Billy Caldwell. The evening 
before Gov. Cass' visit, however, he was in Chicago, and then the 
guest of Caldwell. At my suggestion, he and Caldwell were en- 
gaged to visit Big Foot's village (Geneva Lake), and get what 
information they could of the plans of the Winnebagoes; and also 
learn what action Big Foot's band intended taking. They left 
immediately, and on nearing Geneva Lake, arranged that Shab- 
o-nee should enter the village alone, Caldwell remaining hidden. 

Upon entering the village, Shab-o-nee was made a prisoner, and 
accused of being a friend of the Americans, and a spy. He af- 
fected great indignation at these charges and said to Big Foot: 
" I was not at the payment, but was told by my braves that you 
desired us to join the Winnebagoes and make war on the Amer- 
icans. I think the Winnebagoes have been foolish; alone they 
cannot succeed. So I have come to council with you, hear what 
you have to say, when I will return to my people and report all 
you tell me; if they shall then say, we will join you, I will con- 
sent." After talking nearly all night they agreed to let him go, 
provided he was accompanied by one of their own number; to this 
proposal Shab-o-nee readily consented, though it placed him in a 
dangerous position. His friend Caldwell was waiting for him in 
the outskirts of the village, and his presence must not be known, 
as it would endanger both of their lives. Shab-o-nee was equal 
to the emergency. After leaving, in company with one of Big- 
Foot's braves, as the place of Caldwell's concealment was neared, 
he commenced complaining in a loud voice of being suspected 



The Night Journey. 349 

and made a prisoner, and when quite near, said, " We must have 
no one with us in going to Chicago. Should we meet any one 
of your band or any one else, we must tell them to go away; we 
must go by ourselves, and get to Chicago by noon to-morrow. 
Kinzie will give us something to eat, and we can go on next day." 

Caldwell heard and understood the meaning of tin's, and started 
alone by another route. Strategy was still to be used as Shab-o- 
nee desired to report; so on nearing Chicago, he said to his com- 
panion, " If Kinzie sees you, he will ask why your band did not 
assist in putting out the fire? Ma}^be he has heard news of the 
war and is angry with Big Foot; let us camp here, for our horses 
are very tired." This they did, and after a little, the Big Foot 
brave suggested that Shab-o-nee should go to the Fort for food 
and information. This was what he wanted to do, and he lost no 
time in reporting the result of his expedition, and procuring food 
returned to his camp. Starting the. next morning with his com- 
panion for his own village; on reaching it he called a council of 
his Indians, who were addressed by Big Foot's emissary; but 
they declined to take part with the Winnebagoes, advising Big 
Foot to remain neutral. 

On receiving Shab-o-nee's report, the inhabitants of Chicago 
were greatly excited; fearing an attack, w r e assembled for consul- 
tation, when I suggested sending to the "VY abash for assistance, 
and tendered my services as messenger. This was at first objected 
to, on the ground that a majority of the men at the Fort were in 
my employ, and in case of an attack, no one could manage them 
or enforce their aid but myself. It was, however, decided that 
I should go as I knew the route and all the settlers. An attack 
would probably not be made until Big Foot's embassador had 
returned with his report; this would give at least two weeks' se- 
curity, and in that time I could, if successful, make the trip and 
return. I started between 4 and 5 P. M., reaching my trading 
house on the Iroquois River by midnight, where I changed my 
horse and went on; it was a dark, rainy night. On reaching 
Sugar Creek, I found the stream swollen out of its banks, and 
my horse refusing to cross, I was obliged to wait till daylight, 
when I discovered that a large tree had fallen across the trail, 
making the ford impassable. I swam the stream and went on, 
reaching my friend Mr. Spencer's house at noon, tired out. Mr. 
Spencer started immediately to give the alarm, asking for volun- 
teers to meet at Danville the next evening, with five days' rations. 
By the day following at the hour appointed, 100 men were organ- 
ized into a company, and appointing a Mr. Morgan, an old 
frontier fighter, as their Captain, we immediately started for 
Chicago, camping that night on the north fork of the Yermillion 
River. It rained continually, the trail was very muddy, and we 



350 Cavalry Swimming the Vermillion. 

were obliged to swim most of the streams and many of the large 
sloughs, but we still pushed on, reaching Fort Dearborn the 
seventh day after my departure, to the great joy of the waiting 
people." 

The following particulars relating to Mr. Hubbard's perils in 
reaching Chicago with his volunteers and his reception there, 
are taken from Mr. Cunningham's account; edited by H. W. 
Beckwith of Danville, 111 * 

"We arrived at the Vermillion River about noon on Sunday, 
the day after assembling at Butler's Point. The river was up, 
running, bank full, about a hundred yards wide, with a strong 
current. Our men and saddles were taken over in a canoe. We 
undertook to swim our horses, and as they were driven into the 
water the current would strike them and they would swim in a 
circle and return to the shore a few rods below. Mr. Hubbard, 
provoked at this delay, threw off his coat and said, " Give me old 
Charley," meaning a large, steady-going horse, owned by James 
Butler and loaned to Jacob Heater. Mr. Hubbard, mounting 
this horse, boldly dashed into the stream, and the other horses 
were quickly crowded after him. The water was so swift that 
"old Charley" became unmanageable, when Mr. Hubbard dis- 
mounted on the upper side and seized the horse by the mane, 
near the animal's head, and swimming with his left arm, guided 
the horse in the direction of the opposite shore. We were afraid 
he would be washed under the horse or struck by his feet and be 
drowned ; but he got over without damage, except the wetting of 
his broadcloth pants and moccasins. These he had to dry on his 
person, as we pursued our journey. 

We reached Chicago about four o'clock on the evening of the 
fourth day, in the midst of one of the most severe rainstorms I 
ever experienced, accompanied by thunder and vicious lightning. 
The rain we did not mind; we were without tents and were used 
to wetting. The water we took within us hurt us more than 
that which fell upon us, as drinking it made many of us sick. 

The people of Chicago were very glad to see us. They were 
expecting an attack every hour since Col. Hubbard had left them, 
and as we approached they did not know whether we were ene- 
mies or friends, and when they learned that we were friends they 
gave us a shout of welcome. 

They had organized a company of thirty or fifty men, composed 
mostly of Canadian half-breeds, interspersed with a few Ameri- 
cans, all under command of Capt. Beaubien ; the Americans see- 
ing that we were a better looking crowd, wanted to leave their 

*Mr. Cunning-ham is at this time an esteemed citizen of Danville. He was 
among- the volunteers under Mr. Hubbard to go to the rescue of Chicago, and 
has related some circumstances omitted by him. 



Illinois and Michigan Canal Located. 351 

associates and join onr company. This feeling caused quite a 
row, and the officers finally restored harmony and the discon- 
tented men went back to their old command. 

The town of Chicago was composed at this time of six or seven 
American families, a number of half-breeds, and a lot of idle, 
vagabond Indians loitering about. I made the acquaintance of 
Robert and James Kinzie, and their father, John Kinzie. 

We kept guard day and night for some eight or ten days, when 
a runner came in — I think from Green Bay — bringing word that 
Gen. Cass had concluded a treaty with the Winnebagoes, and that 
we might now disband and go home. 

The citizens were overjoyed at the news; and in their gladness 
they turned out one barrel of j;in, one barrel of brandy, one bar- 
rel of whiskey, knocking the heads of the barrels in. Everybody 
was invited to take a free drink, and, to tell the plain truth, every- 
body did drink. 

The ladies at Fort Dearborn treated us especially well. I say 
this without disparaging the good and cordial conduct of the men 
toward us. The ladies gave us all manner of good things to eat. 
They loaded us with provisions and gave us all those delicate at- 
tentions that the kindness of woman's heart would suggest. 
Some of them — three ladies whom I understood were recently 
from New York — distributed tracts and other reading matter 
among our company, and interested themselves zealously in our 
spiritual as well as temporal welfare.'' 

In 1829, on January 22nd, the Legislature appointed Dr. 
Jayne, of Springfield, Edmund Roberts, of Kaskaskia, and 
Charles Dunn, to locate the canal, lay out towns and sell lots, 
and apply the proceeds to building the canal. James Thompson, 
a surveyor of St. Louis, was employed by them to lay out Chicago 
in lots as already stated. The map which he made of the place 
was engraved on stone in St. Louis, and bears the date of August 
4th, 1830. It was duly recorded on the county record^ at Peoria, 
it being the county seat of the county in which Chicago then 
was. Many lots were sold at auction the same year, and brought 
from ten to two hundred dollars each.* 

Chicago was now re-inforced by many speculators and adven- 
turers by the official action taken as to the canal, it being looked 
upon as an incipient city, though of uncertain destiny, yet a ven- 
ture worth taking chances for; and while the villagers of the 
town w r ere watching the progress of the canal which was to con- 
nect their lonesome place to the world of progress to which, they 
could as yet only get occasional glimpses, the forms of local 

* Tho?e who wish fuller details of the action of the Illinois Legislature as to 
the building- the canal, will find them in JBross' History of Chicago, published by 
Jansen, McClurg & Co. 



352 Pioneer Civil History. 

government began to be instituted as a fitting preparation for 
the sphere to which they aimed. Their progress in this under- 
taking has been well told by Hon. John Wentworth, in a histor- 
ical Lecture which was published by Mr. Fergus, 1876, and runs 
as follows: 

" From St. Clair county, what is now Cook county, was set 
off in the new county of Madison; thence in the new county of 
Crawford; in 1819 in the new county of Clark; and so little 
w^as then known of the northern country, that the act creating 
Clark county extended it to the Canada line. In 1821 we were 
set off in the new county of Pike; in 1823, in the new county of 
Fulton; and in 1825 in the new county of Peoria. I have not 
only caused the county records of these counties to be examined, 
but have also corresponded with their earliest settlers, and I can 
find no official recognition of Chicago until we reach Fulton 
county. The clerk of that county writes me, that the earliest 
mention of Chicago in the records is the order of an election at 
the term of the Fulton county Commissioner's Court, Sept. 2, 
1823, to choose one Major and company officers, polls at Chicago, 
to be opened at the house of John Kinzie. The returns of this 
election cannot be found, if they were ever made. As the county 
was organized in 1823, this, of course, was the first election under 
the organization of the county. The same Court ordered, April 
27, 1824, that the sheriff, Abner Eads, be released from paying 
the money tax collected at Chicago by Bousser. In those days 
the Sheriffs were ex-officio collectors of taxes. The name indicates 
that our Tax-Collector was then a Frenchman, or a mixed-breed 
French and Indian. It seems that they had defaulters in those 
days, as w r ell as now. 

" The clerk of Peoria county writes me, that his earliest records 
commence March 8, 1S25. From these records I learn that John 
Kinzie was commissioned justice of the peace July 28, 1825. He 
w r as the first justice of the peace resident at Chicago. Alexander 
"Wolcott, his son-in-law, and John B. Beaubien, were commis- 
sioned Sept. 10, of the same year. 

" I have also the assessment-roll of John L. Bogardus, assessor 
of Peoria county, for the year 1825, dated July 25, which is as 
follows : 
Tax-Payers 1 Names. Valuation. Tax. 

1 Beaubien. John B §1000 $10.00 

2 Clybourne, Jonas, 625 6.25 

3 Clark, John K 250 2.50 

4 Crafts, John, 5000 50.00 

5 Clermont, Jeremy, 1< 1.00 

6 t loutra, Louis, 50 .50 

7 Kinzie, John, 500 5.00 

8 Laframboise, Claude, 100 1.00 



Pioneer Civil History. 353 

Tay Payers' Names. Valuation. Tax. 

9 Lafraraboise, Joseph, 50 .50 

10 'McKee, David,' 100 1.00 

11 Piche, Peter, 100 1.00 

12 Robinson, Alexander, 200 2.00 

13 Wolcott Alexander 572 5.72 

14 Wilemet [Ouilmette], Antoine 400 4.00 

" The entire valuation, land then being not taxable, of all the prop- 
erty in Chicago was $9,047, and the rate was one per cent. But the 
property of the American Fur Company was assessed to John 
Crafts, its agent, at $5,000. He was a bachelor, and died the 
next year, and Mr. Kinzie was appointed in his place. Deduct- 
ing the American Fur Company's assessment, we have only $4- - 
047 as the personal property of Chicago, in 1825, $40.47 as the 
tax, and thirteen as the number of the tax-payers. 

" The clerk sent me a copy of two-poll books used at Chicago 
—one at an election held Aug. 7, 1826, containing thirty-five 
names; the other at an election held Aug. 2, 1830, containing 
thirty-two names; thus showing a decrease of three voters in four 
years. I will read you the names of our voters in 1826, and you 
will see that only ten of the fourteen tax-payers in 1825 then 
voted: 

1 Augustin Banny. [Bannot?] 19 John Baptiste Lafortune. 

2 Henry Kelley. 20 John Baptiste Malast. 

3 Daniel Bourassea. 21 Joseph Pothier. 

4 Cole Weeks. 22 Alexander Robinson. 1825 

5 Antoine Ouilmette. 1825 23 John K. Clark. 1825 

6 John Baptiste Secor. 24 David McKee. 1825 

7 Joseph Catie. 25 Joseph Anderson. 

8 Benjamin Russell. 26 Joseph Pepot. 

9 Basile Displattes. 27 John Baptiste Beaubien. 1825 

10 Francis Lafraraboise, Sr. 28 John Kinzie. 1825 

11 Francis Laframboise, Jr. 29 Archibald Clybourne. 

12 Joseph Lafraraboise.' 1825 30 Billy Caldwell. 

13 Alexander Larant. 31 Martin Vansicle. 

14 Francis Laducier. 32 Paul Jamboe. 

15 Peter Chavellie. 33 Jonas Clybourne. 1825 

16 Claude Laframboise 1825 34 Edward Anient. 

17 Jeremiah Clairmore [Clermont?] '25.35 Samuel Johnson. 

18 Peter Junio. 

" I will now read you the names of our voters in 1830, show- 
ing that only three of the fourteen tax-payers of 1825 then 
voted : 

1 Stephen J. Scott. 17 Stephen Mack. 

2 John B. Beaubien. 1825, 1826 18 Jonathan A. Bailey. 

3 Leon Bourassea. 19 Alexander McDollo. [McDole?] .." 

4 B. H. Laughton. 20 John S. C. Hogan. 

5 Jesse Walker. 21 David McKee. , 1825, 1826 . 

6 Medard B. Beaubien. 22 Billy Caldwell. 1826/ , 

7 John Baptiste Chavellea. 23 Joseph Thibeaut. 

8 James Kinzie. 24 Peter Frique. . . 

9 Russell E. Heacock. 25 Mark Beaubien. 

10 James Brown. - 26 Laura nt Martin. 

11 Jos. Laframboise. 1825, 1826 27 John Baptiste Secor. 1826 



354 Death of John Kinzie. 

12 John L. Davis. 28 Joseph Bauskey. 

IB William See. 29 Michael Welch. 

14 John Van Horn. 30 Francis Laducier. 1826 

15 John Mann. 31 Lewis Ganday. 

16 David Van Eaton. 32 Peresh Leclerc. 

It is a remarkable commentary upon the fickleness of our 
population, that only six of the men who voted in 1826 voted in 
1830; and these six were half-breeds or Government employes. 
Father John Kinzie, however, died between the two elections, 
upon the 6th of January, 1828, aged 65.* But there were some 
not voting at the second election, such as the late Archibald 
Cly bourne, his father Jonas, and half-brother, John K. Clark, who 
ended their days with us. The half-breeds and French who did 
not vote may have been away on a hunting and trading expedi- 
tion. The voters in 1826 seem to have understood their true in- 
terest, being dependents upon the fort, as everyone of them 
voted the Administration ticket, John Quincy Adams then being 
President. If there were ever three men in the United States 
who electrified the whole country with their fiery denunciations 
of the military power, they were President John Quincy Adams, 
his Yice- President John C. Calhoun, and his Secretary of State, 
Henry Clay. Neither of the three ever forgot Gen. Jackson. 
It would have seemed malicious, and yet quite pertinent, on the 
part of the Chicago member of Congress, to have asked either of 
these gentlemen whether it was not a singular fact that, while Mr. 
Adams was President, the people of Chicago unanimously voted 
with the fort! Ninian Edwards for Governor, Samuel H. Thomp- 
sou for Lieutenant-Governor, Daniel P. Cook for Congressman, 
the Administration candidates, each received thirty-five votes, 
being all there were. The much-complained-of military power 
of the present day has never secured a greater unanimity in the 
colored vote of the South. But four years later, in 1830, when 
Andrew Jackson was President, there was a material change in 

*The following- account of Mr. Kinzie's death has been learned from Mr. Gur- 
don S. Hubbard. He remained in the full vigor of health in both body and 
mind till he had a slight attack of apoplexy, after which his health continued to 
decline till his death, which took place in a few months, at the residence of his son- 
in-law, Dr. Woolcott, who then lived in the brick building- formerly u-ed as the of- 
ficers' quarters in the fort. Here while on a brief visit to Mrs. Wolcott, he was 
suddenly attacked with apoplexy severer than ever before. Mr. Hubbard was 
then living in Mr. Kinzie's family, and was sent for. He immediately obeyed the 
summons, and on coming into the room ot thedving man, he found hm in convul- 
sions, lying on the floor in the parlor, his head supported by his daughter. Mr. 
Hubbard raised him into a sitting position, and thus supported himtill he drew 
his last breath, about fifteen minutes afterwards. The funeral service had place 
at the fort, and the last honors due this old pioneer, were paid with impressive 
respect by the few inhabitants of the place. He was buried at the Military 
grounds south of the fort, from which place his remains were removed ultimately 
to Graceland Cemetery, where they now lie.— [Author. 



Early Voting, 355 

the politics of the place. John Reynolds, the Jackson candidate 
for Governor, received twenty-two out of the thirty-two votes 
cast.* Of the six who voted at both elections, and who voted for 
the Adams candidate in 1826, five voted for the Jackson candi- 
date in 1830; showing their consistency by each time voting with 
the Administration, or more properly with the fort. Billy Cald- 
well, the Sauganash, the nephew of Tecnmseh, voted the Jackson 
ticket; while Joseph Laframboise, a noted Indian chief, stood out 
and voted against it. Up to 1848 we had the viva voce system 
of voting in the State of Illinois. Each man went np to the 
polls, with or without a ticket in his hands, and told whom he 
wanted to vote for, and the judges so recorded it. But in those 
days the masses knew as little whom they were voting for as they 
do now. For the judges often read off the names of the candi- 
dates from the tickets, and the voter would nod his head. There 
was no chance, however, for stuffing the ballot-box under the 
viva voce system. It may account lor the falling off of the vote 
between 1826 and 1830, that some persons would not vote the 
Jackson ticket, and yet disliked to vote against the fort. There 
were four of the Laframboise family voting in 1826, and only one 
in 1830. The names of voters in 1826 indicate that full three- 
fourths of them were French and half-breeds. The judges in 1826 
were Father John Kinzie, the late Gen. John B. Beaubien, and 
Billy Caldwell. The clerks were the late Archibald Cly bourn and 
his half-brother, John K. Clark. The election was held at the 
Agency House, in Chicago Precinct, Peoria county. The Agency 
House was on the North Side, and was the second house built in 
Chicago, Mr. Kinzie's being the first. The Indian Agent w T as Dr. 
Alexander Wolcott, who died in 1830, son-in-law of Mr. Kinzie. 

"The election of 1830 was held in the house of James Kinzie, 
Chicago Precinct, Peoria county. This house was on the West 
Side, near the forks of the river. The South Side had no status 
at that time, there being nothing then on that side except the 
fort and light-house building, and the log-houses of the two 
Beaubien brothers, — one residing at the lake shore, and one near 
the forks of the river, with such a marsh between, that much of 
the time their most convenient way of visiting each other was 
in boats in the river. 

"The judges at the election of 1830, were Russell E. Heacock, 
the first lawyer to settle in Chicago, Gen. John B. Beaubien, one 
of the judges in 1826, and James Kinzie. The clerks were 
Medard B. Beaubien, well known in this city, now principal 
agent of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians at Silver Lake, 
Shawnee County, Kansas, and Jesse Walker." 

* His popularity was due to his frankness, whatever administrative pressure 
was used to elect him. — [Author. 



356 Pioneer Citizens. 

The following, from Hon. ¥m. Bross' History of Early Chi- 
cago, continues the subject of civil records, etc., from the forego- 
ing extracts from Mr. Went worth's Lecture, and is here inserted 
to give the reader the benefit of his notes fresh from the lips of 
his personal friends, as well as from his own observation: 

" Our oldest permanent resident in the city is Col. P. J. Ham- 
ilton. In this view of the case, he is certainly entitled to the 
honor of being the " oldest inhabitant." He came here April 
9th, 1831, and this has been his home ever since. Gr. W. Dole, 
Esq., came here May 4th, 1831, and P. F. W. Peck, Esq., July 
15th, of the same year. But though not living in the city lim- 
its, A. Clybourne, Esq., has been identified with it, or rather with 
the place that became Chicago, since August 5th, 1823. 

" Col. P. J. Hamilton came to this city, as above stated, in 
April, 1831. Cook county had been organized the month previ- 
ous. He soon obtained a high position among his fellow citizens, 
and at that time young, and full of energy and vigor, and not 
the man to shrink from responsibility, we wonder that he was 
not crushed witli the weight of the " blushing honors" that fell 
to his share of the spoils in the new county of Cook. In the 
course of the year, lie became Judge of Probate, Pecorder, Coun- 
ty Clerk; discharged gratuitously the duties of Treasurer, and 
was Commissioner of Schools. The good Colonel would find his 
hands full were he to fulfill the duties of all these offices at the 
present time. We have availed ourselves of his early and accu- 
rate knowledge of events for most of the facts which are con- 
tained in some half-dozen of the succeeding paragraphs. 

"The county of Cook, in 1831, embraced all the territory now 
included in the counties of Lake, McHenry, Dupage, Will and 
Iroquois. At that time Fort Dearborn was occupied by two com- 
panies of U. S. Infantry, under the command of Major Fowle. 
The resident citizens were Mr. Elijah Wentworth and family, oc- 
cupying a house partly log and partly frame, owned by Mr. James 
Kinzie, and situated on the ground now occupied by Mr. Norton 
as a lumber yard. Mr. W. kept a tavern, the best in Chicago. 
In the vicinity of this tavern resided Mr. James Kinzie and fam- 
ily, Mr. William See and family, Mr. Alexander Pobinson and 
family — now living on the Des Plaines — and Mr. Pobert A. Kin- 
zie, who had a store composed of dry goods — a krge portion of 
them Indian goods — groceries, etc. Aero: s the North Branch of 
the Chicago river, and nearly opposite Mr. Wentworth's tavern, 
resided Mr. Samuel Miller and family, and with them Mr. John 
Miller, a brother. Mr. Miller also kept tavern. On the east 
side of the South Branch, and immediately above the junction, 
with the North Branch, resided Mr. Mark Beaubien and family, 
who also kept tavern ; and a short distance above him, on the 



Adjacent Settlements. 357 

South Branch, resided a Mr. Bourisso, an Indian trader. Between 
Mark Beaubien's tavern and Fort Dearborn there were no houses, 
except a small log cabin, near the foot of Dearborn street, and 
used* as an Indian trading house. Xear the garrison, and imme- 
diately south, on the property sold by James H. Collins, Esq., to 
the Illinois Central Eailroad Company, was the residence of Mr. 
J. B. Beaubieu and family, who was connected with the Ameri- 
can Fur Company in the Indian trade. He had near his resi- 
dence a store, containing such goods as were suitable to that bu- 
siness. A short distance south of him on the lake was a house, 
then unoccupied. 

kt On the north side of the river, and immediately opposite the 
garrison, stood the old ' Kinzie House,' as it was commonly called, 
which was also then unoccupied, and in a very dilapidated state. 
A short distance above, on the main branch of the river, and on 
the ground now occupied by the Chicago and Galena Railroad 
Company, stood what had been the Government Agency house, 
and known to the ' oldest inhabitant' as ' Cobweb Castle.' That 
was then unoccupied, Dr. "Wolcott, the Government Agent, hav- 
ing died the fall before. In its vicinity were several small los: 
buildings, for the accommodation of the blacksmith, interpreter, 
and others connected with the Agency. The blacksmith then 
occupying one of the buildings was a Mr. McKee, now living in 
Dupage county. Billy Caldwell, the principal chief of the Otta- 
wa, Pottawatomie and Chippewa Indians, occupied another. He 
was then Interpreter for the Agency. Col. Thomas J. V. Owen, 
who had been the winter before appointed to succeed the late Dr. 
Wolcott, had not then taken up his residence in Chicago; G. Ker- 
cheval, who was then sub- Agent, was then here. Dr. E. Plarmon, 
the father of C. L. Harmon, and James Harrington, of Geneva, 
Kane county, had taken up their residence here, and were making 
claims on the lake shore — Dr. Harmon where Mrs. Clarke now 
lives, and Mr. H. immediately north and adjoining." 

The settlement nearest to Chicago in 1S30, was at Xaperville, 
where Mr. Stephen J. Scott settled at this date, where he still 
lives in his old age, still attending to his business of banking. 
Within the next two years a goodly number of settlers came to 
the place by the way of the lakes, passing through Chicago, 
which not pleasing them, they settled at Xaperville. Among 
them were Mr. Xaper, for whom the town was named; Mr. Har- 
ry T. AVilson, who is still living, in Wheaton, 111., and Hon. Ed. 
Murray, now living in Xaperville, to whom the writer is indebted 
for items of historic interest. Settlements were also begun at 
Gross Point and on Fox river. 

Galena had for many years been a thriving settlement, on account 
of the lead mines, and several old Indian "trails led to it from the 



358 Dixon's Ferry. 

southern extremity of lake Michigan, as well as from the settled 
portions of Illinois, which then extended no farther north than Ot- 
tawa. In 1825 a Mr. Kellogg pioneered his way from Peoria over 
the prairies to Galena, and subsequently others followed his track, 
till it had scarred the green turf into a beaten road known by 
the name of Kellogg's Trail. The next year Mr. John Boles 
made the same tour, and cut across some of Mr. Kelloggf s curves, 
crossing the Rock Eiver at Dixon, then a spot without inhabitants 
or a name. After this the road was known as Boles' Trail. For 
the next few years a large travel between Galena and the Illinois 
settlements went over it, and afforded a small source of income 
to the AYinnebagoes and Sacs, in the novel method by which they 
ferried wagons over Rock River at Dixon, which was done by 
placing both wheels on one side of the wagon in one large canoe, 
and both on the other side in another. Thus laden, the canoes 
were padded across while the horses being detached from the 
wagon, swam behind, led by their bridles.* The settlements of 
Apple River and others, from ten to twenty miles from Galena, 
were made previous to 1832, and also those on the Mississippi at 
Rock Island, and at the Des Moines Rapids. Meantime, the 
demand for ferriage over the Rock River at Dixon increased, 
and a Mr. J. L. Begordis, of Peoria, resolved to build a flat bot- 
tomed ferry-boat there. With this intent he built a small hut 
on the bank of the river and commenced building the boat, but 
the jealous Indians looked upon it as infringement of their 
rights, and burned it. In 1828, an Indian interpreter of French 
extraction, named Joe Ogie, by virtue of having married an 
Indian wife, succeeded better. He starred a ferry without moles- 
tation from the Indians, and in 1830, sold it to Mr. Dixon, after 
which the place took the name of Dixon's Ferry, and subsequently 
Dixon. This venerable pioneer lived till 1876, when he died full 
of honors and full of years. f 

Chicago was then in her germ cell, but during those days of 
uncertainty occasionally adventurers came to cast their lot with 
her, and among those who thus came previous to 1823, two are 
still living — Gurdon S. Iiabbard, whose early adventures have 
already been told, and David McKee, who came in 1822. He is 
now living near Aurora, 111., where the writer visited him 
in the summer of 1879. He was at work in his garden, scythe 
in hand, mowing the weeds around its headlands. The following 

* History of Ogle county by H. W. Boss, a present resident of Chicago. 

t Mr. John Dixon was born at Rye, Westchester Co., N. Y., in 1784. On the 
13th of April, 1820, he removed to Illinois, locating near where the city of Spring- 
field now is, where he remained four years. Thence he removed to Peoria Co., 
and from the latter place to Rock River, where he arrived on the 11th of April, 
1830, and Loujht the ferry boat of Ogie for $1800.00. 

Sherwood Dixon. 



McKee's Narration. 350 

Is his story, substantially as it came from his lips, fresh from the 
past — truthful and laconic. 

He was born in Loudon county, Va., in the year 1800; went 
to Cincinnati at the age of thirteen, where he remained till he was 
twenty years old, when he started for Chicago on horseback, by 
the way of Ft. Wayne. Elkhart was the next settled point on his 
way, where two or three log cabins stood, inhabited by their 
lonesome tenants. Niles was the next. Here was a small set- 
tlement, and two miles from it a Baptist missionary station, un- 
der the charge of Rev. Isaac McCoy, for the benefit of the Indians. 
The same man sometimes visited Chicago, and held religious 
services. 

At that time there were annual arrivals by sailing vessel to 
Chicago, with supplies for the fort. On one of these some books 
were shipped for Mr. McCoy's mission, but while the vessel lay 
at anchor outside of the bar, unloading her freight, a storm came 
up and rolled the waves over it, and ruined the books, with other 
portions of the freight. 

He crossed the Calumet in an Indian canoe made of birch 
bark, his horse swimming by its side, led by the bridle. There 
was an Indian village at the place, its wigwams built with webs 
of flags interwoven together with the fibre of basswood bark. 
The fibre was made by boiling the bark, and beating it as flax is 
made from the straw. Indian mats were made from this material, 
and used as we use carpets. They also served as beds for the 
Indians, as well as the door for the wigwam. 

Col. J. McNeil held command of the fort at the time of his 
arrival. John Kinzie lived on the north side in a house whose 
eides were covered with birch bark, brought by the Indians 
from Michigan. The Indians made vessels for holding water, 
maple sap, etc., from this material. 

David and Barney Lawton were acting as clerks for the Amer- 
ican Fur Company. Both had Indian wives. David died at his 
brother's house, where Lyons now is. The Chicago river was 
then a clear stream, and its water was used for culinary purposes. 

Excellent fish abounded in it, and over it hovered wild geese, 
ducks and sand hill cranes in vast flocks, and pelicans and swans 
were sometimes seen. Deer were plenty, and bear, wild turkeys 
ten** otter were found on the Desplaines. 

b peaking of the Indians, says Mr. McKee, " they are better 
than white people; they always feed the hungry without regard 
to pay. In a natural state they are models of benevolence." 

On coming over the sand hills towards the fort, his attention 
was attracted to the battle ground of the massacre. The bones 
were gathered into two boxes, each about four feet square, and 



360 McKee's Narration. 

buried just west of the sand-drifts, in the soil of the prairie, by 
order of Captain Bradley. 

Billy Caldwell told him that he buried the head of Cap- 
tain Wells two days after the battle, in the sand, but conld not 
find the body. 

Mr. LaFramboise told him that after the first fire at the 
battle, Captain Heald asked his soldiers if they would fight till 
death or surrender, and they chose to fight. 

For many years Mr. MeKee had dealings with Alexander Pob- 
inson, and always found him a model of uprightness. He could 
not read or write, but managed to keep his accounts with exact- 
ness by means of characters of his own to represent quantities, 
with a pencil and paper. He was interpreter for all the Indians 
at the Chicago agency. 

Mr. McKee was gunsmith for the Indian department from the 
time of his first arrival in Chicago, in 1822, till 1827. He then 
became mail-carrier for the government between Fort Wayne 
and Chicago, and made a trip once a month between the two 
places during the year 1828. He performed the service on horse- 
back, carrying mail bag, camping equipments, and a gun to shoot 
his living on the way. Each night the earth was his bed, and the 
forage of the wilderness his horse feed. On one occasion, he was 
overtaken b} r an unusually severe snow storm, and for six days 
lie buffeted the tempest, painfully toiling through the drifts 
which bewildered him. on his way from Niles to Chicago. In 
his path he found the dead body of a soldier frozen while at- 
tempting to reach Xiles. 

The first house at the fork of the Chicago river (Wolf's Point), 
was built by James Kinzie, (John Kinzie's oldest son by his first 
wife.) It was a log cabin with clapboard roof and sides. It was 
situated on the North side. Two or three small huts were next 
built near by it, by Canadians and half-breeds. John Hogan 
built a house on the South side opposite James Kinzie's house. 

Chicago was yet essentially an Indian town. Peltries and furs 
guns, blankets, kettles, knives, hatchets, vermilion and whisky 
were its stock-in-trade, and Indians were its supplyers and con- 
sumers/" Quiet reigned there because no one had occasion to 
offend the Indians, and when they became intoxicated, the squaws 
took care to keep sober, in order to restrain them. All this was 
soon to be changed by means of the Black Hawk war, which will 
next be told. 

*The Pottawatomies paid one-half the expense of building the first bridge 
from the South to the West Side. — Western Annals. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Winnebagoes, the Pottawatomies, and the Sacs and Foxes 
in 1832 — Slack Hawk's Village and Cornfield Purchased 
by the Whites — Forbearance of the Indians — A Transient 
Compromise- — Governor Reynolds Calls for Volunteers to 
Drive Aivay the Indians — They Retire across the Missis- 
sippi — Bad Advice of White Cloud, the Prophet — Black 
Hawk returns to Illiojiis, and Camps at Sycamore Creek — 
The Dog Feast — The Pursuit — The Alarm — S tinman's De- 
feat — Indian Creek Massacre — Flight of the Frontierers — 
General Scott Arrives at Detroit — The Cholera Among Ms 
Men — He Arrives at Chicago — Fearful Ravages, of the 
Pestilence — Black Hawk's Fugitive Skirmishes in Northern 
Illinois — His Retreat — Battle of Bad Axe — General Scott 
Arrives at Fort Armstrong — Black Hawk Brought in as a 
Prisoner — The War Ended. 

In 1831 the Winnebagoes occupied the country on the Wis- 
consin River. Their whole numbers were about 1500. White 
Loon was their principal chief. He with some of his braves 
had fought both Wayne and Harrison, and had ever been loyal 
to British interest during the war of 1S12. 

The Pottawattomies occupied the northeastern portion of Illi- 
nois. They had also fought on the British side during the war 
of 1812, but since the treaty of 1815 held with them, they had 
been subsidized into friendship by an annuity of §5,700.00. 
Their numbers were but little short of 3,000. 

The Sacs and Foxes were quite as numerous, and were more to 
be feared, as they had not been brought so much under the influ- 
ence of the United States. Their hunting grounds laid along 
Bock River and in the southeastern part of Iowa. Early records 
place them on the eastern coast of Michigan, from whence they 
were driven to Green Bay, from whence they wandered to the 
Mississippi. Here they became a formidable power and took 
part in revenging the death of Pontiae by a relentless war upon 

(361) 



362 Black Hawk Determines to Defend his Home. 

the Illinois tribes. Keokuk was their principal chief, but Black 
Hawk rose to distinction as a subordinate chief by virtue of his 
daring deeds on the war-path when a mere boy. Ever since the 
War of 1812 he had frequently visited his English father at Mai- 
den, and received presents from him as a just remuneration for 
his past services to him. 

By the treaty of 1804, held in St. Louis, in November, his 
tribe had sold all their lands in Illinois to the United States, for 
a consideration in goods to the value of $2,234.50, and an annuity 
of $1,000. This treaty Black Hawk alleged to have been a 
fraud, * but if it was, its provisions were confirmed by the subse- 
quent treaty of 1822, and also in 1830, on the 15th of July, at 
Frairie du Chien, when Keokuk made the final cession to the 
United States of all the country owned by the Sacs and Foxes 
east of the Mississippi River. This was done without the knowl- 
edge of Black Hawk, and when the old veteran heard of it his 
indignation was aroused, for he was always opposed to yielding 
territory to the whites. By the stipulations of this treaty the 
Sacs and Foxes were to leave their villages east of the Missis- 
sippi the next year, and Keokuk used his influence with his 
tribe to bring these stipulations into peaceable fulfillment. 
Black Hawk took the opposite side of the question. The merits 
of the case were from this time canvassed by the old men of the 
tribe as well as the chiefs during the remainder of the summer 
and the entire autumn of 1830. Meantime Keokuk had crossed 
the Mississippi with the majority of his tribe, while Black Hawk 
was casting about in all directions for assistance wherewith to 
maintain his ancient home on Rock River. First he went to the 
Indian agent on Rock Island, who informed him that the lands 
having been sold by the government to individuals, that the In- 
dians had no longer any right to remain on them, as the provis- 
ions of the treaty of 1804 obliged them to leave the country as 
soon as private persons had purchased the lands ceded. Not dis- 
heartened by this set-back, he went to Maiden to take counsel 
with his ancient allies, the British. As might be expected he 
was told by them that if the Indians had not sold their lands 
they could still remain on them in safety. On his return he 
paid his respects to General Cass, at Detroit, who gave him sim- 
ilar assurances. His resolution was now taken to defend his 
home, on the assumption that the treaty was a fraud by which it 
had been sold, and to this end he made a vain attempt to secure 

* Black Hawk in his account of the treaty already alluded to in a preceding" 
chapter, says that the treaty was made by only four chiefs of his tribe, and that 
thev signed it under the influence of intoxicating drink. See Smith's Wis. p. 
114. 



Black Hawk's Village Purchased. 363 

the assistance of the Pottawattomies, the Winnebagoes and other 
tribes, but his eloquence was wasted. The chiefs of these tribes 
had seen the folly of contending against the United States, and 
were determined to keep down the war spirit of their young men, 
but it sometimes required their utmost exertion to do it. 

Returning from one of his missions to procure assistance, late 
in the autumn of 1830, Black Hawk found his village deserted. 
All its inhabitants had gone north on the usual hunt to reap 
their annual harvest of furs wherewith to pay old debts to trad- 
ers, as well as to barter for new supplies to satisfy their increas- 
ing wants for the rude implements of civilization. He followed 
them, and for a few weeks, at least, the griefs of this tenacious 
advocate of Indian rights were assuaged by the excitements of 
the chase. This solace was brief ; when he with his tribe re- 
turned early the succeeding April, they found their village in 
possession of the pale faces. The fur trader at Rock Island, a 
former friend of Black Hawk, had purchased the very ground on 
which the village stood, and he and his associates were making 
preparations to cultivate the spacious field of seven hundred 
acres on which the Indians had for many years raised their corn 
for bread supply. 

It cannot be denied that this was a violation at least of the 
spirit of the treaty of 1804, the validity even of which was 
challenged by Black Hawk. Though this treaty ceded the lands 
to the United States, it guaranteed the right of the Indians to re- 
main on them till they were wanted for settlements ; but in this 
case the vital centre of the lands in question was purchased by 
design, while the frontier settlements* of the whites were yet 
fifty miles distant. Even Keokuk was now unable to entirely 
stem the tide of indignation which arose in the Indian camp, 
and contrary to his advice a large detachment of the tribe joined 
their fortunes with Black Hawk. These, with Black Hawk at the 
head of his band, took possession of their town and also of the 
field, nowithstanding the presence of the white claimants. It 
was situated between the Rock and the Mississippi rivers at their 
immediate junction. Here the Sacs had made their home for 
about one hundred and fifty years, and hard by were the graves of 
their fathers, admonishing them from the " world of the Great 
Spirit" to defend their graves. It is not to be supposed that the 
mass of Indian population could understand the binding force of 
a contract, and it is no marvel that their sense of justice was out- 
raged when they beheld strangers appropriating to themselves 
the soil which they had inherited. But even while writhing 
under these griefs a peaceable parley was held with the intruders 

*Western Annals Appendix. 



364 



Treacherous Compromise. 



(in their estimation), and owing to the temperate counsels of 
Black Hawk his tribe were brought into a conservative humor, 
and consented to let the new claimants cultivate halt' the field, 
while the squaws should cultivate the other half. Under this 
compromise the squaws planted their half, but as might be sup- 
posed, this insufficient attempt at palliation did not bridge over 
the chasm between the ambitions of the whites and the necessi- 
ties of the Indians. The former cared more for the right of the 
soil than for the crop, and a quarrel with the Indians would facili- 
tate this end. Black Hawk comprehended the whole situation, 
and with a laudable purpose hardly to be looked for in an In- 
dian, counseled forbearance from his people, while a little hand- 
ful of white men entered among them (as they felt) to rob 
them of their possessions ; but there is a point beyond which for- 
bearance cannot go, at least in minds of low degree, or even those 
of mediocrity. It is only the philosopher who can be patient 
over present griefs, and even he can do it only when he sees be- 
yond, those triumphs which the recoil of time are likely to bring 
to his consolation. But if Black Hawk himself was a philoso- 
pher the squaws who dug in the cornfields were not philoso- 
phers ; the white men plowed up part of the corn which they 
had planted on their half of the field, and they retorted by tear- 
ing down the fences adjacent to the white men's half, and allowing 
the cattle to come in to injure the crop. 

Pending these and other disturbances of the peace, eight of the 
white settlers united in a memorial to Governor Reynolds, set- 
ting forth their grievances, which was presented to him at the 
executive office, then at Yandalia, on the 18th of May, 1831. In 
response to this memorial and several others of a similar nature, 
which Governor Reynolds states that he received, on the 27th he 
made a call for 700 militia to protect the white settlers at the 
Black Hawk village, and on the same day addressed a letter to 
General Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs, stationed at St. 
Louis, requesting his assistance in removing the Indians. The 
next clay the governor addressed a letter to General Gaines, then 
at Jefferson Barracks, of similar intent. In response to these 
letters, General Clark relieves himself from further responsibil- 
ity by referring the whole matter to General Gaines, who was the 
most proper one to act in the matter, and General Gaines replied 
to Governor Reynolds, saying: " I do not deem it necessary or 
proper to require militia or any other description of force other 
than the regular army at this place and Prairie du Chien to pro- 
tect the frontiers." 

If Governor Reynolds had referred the entire matter of pro- 
tecting the frontier to General Gaines, instead of calling out the 
militia himself, it is but a fair assumption that General Gaines, 



The Council, ' 365 

by virtue of the authority of the United States, would have 
marched to the scene of disturbances and put an end to them by 
enforcing an even measure of justice between the two parties 
whose disputes were limited within the boundaries of a seven 
hundred acre field of corn. But the governor had a difficult part 
to act. If he failed to call out the militia and give them a chance 
to hunt Indians, he would lose the popular favor by which he had 
recently been elected to office, and besides this he would be held 
responsible for any Indian outrages which the aggressive and 
captious spirit of the settlers on the frontier might provoke, and 
in the end the miserable Indians might be doubly victimized by 
a fiercer though tardier war upon them. 

Under these circumstances history cannot blame frank, honest 
John Reynolds for doing as he did. Complaints against the 
Indians now multiplied, and General Gaines advanced to Fort 
Armstrong on Rock Island, close by the disputed corn field and 
village of Black Hawk, and here on the 7th of June, the Indians 
were summoned to a council to be held in the fort. At its session 
General Gaines, wishing to quell the war spirit among the Indians. 
by- making light of their most tenacious chief, asked in derision 
who is Black Hawk? At which the indignant chief arose and 
left the counsel room with smothered rage. The next morning 
he returned and replied : 

" My father, you ask who is Black Hawk — why does he sit 
among the chiefs? I will tell you who I am: I am a Sac. My 
father was a Sac. I am a warrior and so was my father. Ask 
these youn^ men who have followed me to battle, and thev will 
tell you who Black Hawk is. Provoke our people to war, and 
you will learn who Black Hawk is." 

The conference terminated by a peremptory summons from 
General Gaines to Black Hawk to leave the east side of the Mis- 
sissippi and retire to its west bank, which command the chief 
with more chivalry than policy refused to obey. 

To enforce this order, General Gaines deemed it prudent to 
wait till the 1,600 militia which Governor Reynolds had already 
raised, and were now encamped at Beardstown, should arrive, 
who reached Ft. Armstrong after a prosperous march of four 
days. 

This interval gave the Indians time for a sober second thought, 
and on the night of the 24th they left their village, retreating 
across the river as ordered. The next day General Gaines, at the 
head of his own force of regulars and Gov. Reynolds militia, who 
had joined them, advanced on the place, and on the 26th took 
possession of its deserted wigwams and cornfields. 

The incidents of the war which followed the next year are still 
remembered by many now living who took part in it. Many his.- 



366 Good Record of the Sac and Fox Nation. 

tories of it are extent, some of which have made it an opportu- 
nity to cultivate sentimentality in favor of the Indians, at the ex- 
pense of the government. Others have taken the opposite ex- 
treme, and while stating only truth, have omitted such portions 
as would be calculated to bring dircredit to the system by which 
the Indians were driven from their lands. Some historians have 
made it an opportunity to crown the brows of soldiers with 
laurels. They have not succeeded in this attempt, for the reason 
that the enemy was too insignificant to leave much glory to soar 
above his pitiful grave. Any attempt to conceal or distort the 
conditions which sent him there cannot deceive the impartial his- 
torian who reads both sides, and compares, discriminates and veri- 
fies till the truth comes uppermost afer much shaking. 

By no authority has it been claimed that the Sac and Fox na- 
tions from 1816 to the commencement of the Black Hawk war 
in 1832, ever killed or personally injured a white man, and it is 
acknowledged that during this time traders continually passed 
through their country, to and from the lead mines of Galena, 
often with large amounts of goods and money without being mo- 
lested. The sum of accusations against them was for tearing down 
the fences of the corn-field as just related, and during the same 
year, 1831, they w^ere accused of destroying some goods of a trader, 
among which was a barrel of whiskey, which they emptied on the 
ground — a common occurrence now-a-days among ourselves. 

After Black Hawk and his band had retreated across the Mis- 
sissippi before the large force of General Gaines, he encamped on 
its western bank with a white flag flying over his wretched fugi- 
tives, who had little else but this emblem of submission to save 
them from starvation, and under this duress, a council was held 
between his band and General Gaines and Governor .Reynolds. 
It resulted in a treaty of peace, signed on the 30th of June, 1831, 
by which Black Hawk after confirming the validity of the treaty 
of 1804, agreed to relinquish his old claims to any lands east of 
the Mississippi river, and submit to the authority of Keokuk, who 
with the most sensible portion of the Sac and Fox nation, were 
now peaceably settled in their new home. 

Both Governor Reynolds and General Gaines now supposed 
the difficulty to be settled, and congratulated themselves that a 
long term of peace was assured to the frontier before the villain-, 
ous whiskey traders and the volcanic red men should again em- 
broil the State in a border war.* 

*Eoth Governor Reynolds and General Gaines were moved with compassion 
for the Indians in their wretchedness, and sent them a liberal supply of pro- 
visions to satisfy their immediate wants. This charity excited some murmurs 
among the \ohinteers, who stigmatized the late treaty as a "corn treaty,' 1 and 
said they had better give them lead than bread. 



Bad Advice. 367 

Up to this time Black Hawk and Ms British band (as they 
were called), had demeaned themselves with exemplary moder- 
ation under the inevitable destiny which had forced them from 
the beautiful valley of the Rock River. That they should have 
clung to it with firmness, and left it with painful regrets, was to 
be expected; nor is it strange that the vehement emotions that 
are a distinguishing trait in the Indian character should have 
made them cast a longing, lingering look behind, when the broad 
face of the Mississippi separated them from all their local attach- 
ments. 

The autumn succeeding the Indians' retreat from their village, 
found them in a destitute condition. They had raised no corn, 
for it was too late to plant when they left their village; moreover, 
tli ere was a large field of corn which they had planted now fully 
ripe, which they looked upon as their own by right, and some 
stealthy attempts being made to gather the ears under cover of 
night, the pilferers were fired upon by the whites. But during 
these accumulated griefs, an affront which had been inflicted upon 
them two years before by the Menomonees, was not forgotten. 
This was the wanton murder of a single Sac by the offending 
tribe. To revenge this, a band of Black Hawk's men, late in the 
fall ascended the Mississippi to Prairie du Chein, attacked a camp 
of Menominees and Sioux near by, and took seven-fold vengeance 
by killing 28 of the unsuspecting and unprepared warriors. 
This was in clear violation of the treaty of 1825, and the authori- 
ties of Prairie du Chein made a demand of Black Hawk to give 
up the authors of this bloody deed, to be tried by the laws of the 
United States. Nettled as he was by the late misfortunes which 
had overtaken him, he was in no mood to do this, and delayed 
the matter by a false pretense. 

During the ensuing winter Black Hawk's emissaries, Neo- 
pope, Wisshick and White Cloud, the Prophet,* visited the Ot- 
taways, Chippewas, Pottawattomies and Winnebagoes, and pro- 
fessed to have received assurances of assistance from all of them 
in recovering their ancient possessions. Under this fatal illusion 
lie assembled his people, in March, 1832, on the west bank of the 
Misissippi, on the spot where Fort Madison had been built in 
1804, long since abandoned, . but now the site of the flourish- 
ing city of Madison, Iowa. Here were assembled 368 braves, 
mounted on tough, muscular ponies, not unlike their masters, 
capable of great endurance, with slender means of subsistence, 

* White Cloud was a Winnebago chief, whose village was at the present site 
of Prophetstown, 111. He was in full sympathy with Black Hawk, acting as his 
oracle and orator. Both Neopope and Wisshick were also firm friends of Black 
Hawk, ever counseling war against the whites. 



368 Black Hawk Returns to Illinois. 

squaws, jaded down with -unceasing toil, and their quota of 
half-clad children, shivering in the humid blasts of early spring, 
bent on a trip to their old home east of the Mississippi, probably 
not without some faint hopes of re-possessing it. 

With this purpose in view, the cavalry arm of the service, 
consisting of the men, leaped on the backs of their ponies, and 
whipped the patient beasts over the spongy soil up the west bank 
of the river, while the squaws manned the canoes, and tugged up 
stream with their materials of war, consisting of a few kettles, 
blankets, etc. How the canoes passed Fort Armstrong, on Rock 
Island, without exciting the suspicion of Gen. Atkinson, its com- 
mander, is not known. Early in April they arrived at the 
mouth of Rock River, but little above the fort. Here they 
crossed the Mississippi, in defiance of the treaty of the previ- 
ous year, and the whole tribe made their way up the Rock 
river, under pretense of going to their friends the Winnebagoes, 
to plant corn in their country. 

The w T anderers had not passed far up' the river till they were 
overtaken by two messengers from General Atkinson, one briefly 
succeeding the other, warning them back to the west side of the 
river with threats of war if not heeded. Black Hawk replied 
spiritedly that he was determined not to go back, and equally so 
not to make war on the whites unless attacked. Continuing his 
course up Rock river he soon came to Dixon's Ferry, where he 
paid his respects to Mr. Dixon, its proprietor, explained his posi- 
tion to him, and passed on with his fugitives, all behaving with 
commendable decorum, carrying with them all the wealth they 
possessed, which was more ponderous than valuable. 

Governor Reynolds having heard the news of his return, imme- 
diately organized a force of 1800 volunteers to follow him, who 
promptly assembled at Beardstown for organization in companies. 
The command of this zealous army was given to General Samuel 
Whiteside, a man of much ability and considerable experience in 
Indian fighting. Discipline or training of these fresh recruits, 
the contemptible character of the enemy, seemed to make unne- 
cessary, and they immediately took up their march to follow Black 
Hawk's " tramps." After a hasty march in the pursuit, they 
reached Dixon, which brought them within only a single day's 
march of the object of their pursuit, Black Hawk's band, who were 
encamped but thirty miles above this place on Sycamore creek, a 
tributary of Rock River. General Atkinson was now advancing 
to the same place with the regulars from Fort Armstrong, and 
General Whiteside thought best to wait till his arrival before ad- 
vancing further. Governor Reynolds w T as among the volunteers 
who took no responsibility as to their military command, although 
his authority transcended that of General Whiteside, and of him 



The Dog Feast Abruptly Broken up. 369 

in an nnlncky hour, a certain Major (Stillman) begged the priv- 
ilege of making a reconnoisance of the enemy's camp. The 
Governor consented, and on the 14th of May he, at the head of 
275 volunteers, mounted on their own horses, started ont in gay 
spirits on their mission, each man enjoying the stimulating re- 
flection that he was about to distinguish himself by a brilliant 
achievement. 

As they approached the camp of Black Hawk, he was engaged 
not in the tactics of a soldier but in entertaining his Winneba- 
go friends with the impressive hospitalities of a dog feast, on 
the banks of the Kishwaukie, a tributary of Rock river, since 
called Sycamore Creek, about thirty miles above Dixon's. This 
feast was to be succeeded by a great council of Chiefs, which it 
is fair to assume was intended at least to make sufficient show of 
strength to preserve the "balance of power" in its equilibrium 
between the red and white men of northern Illinois. The issue at 
stake involved the existence of the Sac nation, as Black Hawk 
viewed it, for it is hardly to be presumed that he foresaw at that 
time the eventual ruin of his people. 

Foremost among the chiefs present was Shaubena, he who had 
fought by the side of Black Hawk when allies of the English, 
against the Americans through the war of 1812. These veterans 
were bound together by ties of affection doublv strengthened bv 
consanguinity. But Shaubena was fully impressed with the 
power of the whites, and though his refusal to join his fortunes 
to Black Hawk lacerated his heart, he unhesitatingly declined to 
take up the war belt, and refusing even to attend the council, 
took his leave and made his way down Rock River towards 
Dixon. 

Shortly after his departure some of Black Hawk's hunters who 
were scouting the country in search of game, came in in breath- 
less haste, and informed him of the near approach of cavalry, upon 
which he sent out three young men to meet and conduct them to 
his camp. 

The immediate consequences are told by Governor Reyn- 
olds, as follows: that " three Indians unarmed, with a white 
flag, made their appearance near the encampment. These In- 
dians gave themselves up, and were taken into custody as hostages 
by order of the officers. Soon after the three unarmed Indians 
were taken into custody, six armed Indians appeared on horse- 
back on a hill three-fourths of a mile from the encampment. 
Without orders, a few soldiers and some officers commenced an 
irregular chase of the Indians on horseback and pursued them 
four or five miles. During this race in the prairie, a great por- 
tion of the troops mounted their horses and joined without orders 
in the disorderly chase of the Indians. The whites became 



370 StillmarSs Defeat. 

enraged in the pursuit, and having the best horses, overtook two 
Indians and killed them. Major Hackleton, of Fulton Co. was 
dismounted, and had a personal combat with an Indian, also dis- 
mounted. In this irregular running conflict, three Indians 
were killed without loss to the whites. In this skirmish, which 
extended over four or five miles of the smooth prairie, between 
the encampment and the mouth of Sj 7 camore creek, the volun- 
teers at the camp, knowing that blood was shed, attempted to 
kill the three unarmed Indians who had been taken into custody 
as hostages under protection of the white flag. One Indian was 
killed, but in the darkness and confusion the other two escaped 
unhurt. At the time Still man's volunteer's had this running 
skirmish in the prairies, Black Hawk had many of his friends of 
the Pottawattomie nation feasting with him on dog-meat. The 
retreating Indians had almost reached the camp of Black Hawk 
where he was feasting, and the whites at their heals whooping, 
yelling and shouting. This uproar alarmed Black Hawk and 
the Indians at the feast; and they in a hasty, tumultuous manner, 
mounted their horses, snatched up their arms and rushed out in 
all the fury of a mad lioness in defense of their women and chil- 
dren. Black Hawk took a prudent and wise stand, concealed 
behind some woods (then nearly dark), so that the straggling and 
unmanageable forces of Major Stillman approached near him. It 
was a crisis with the Indians. They fought in defense of all they 
held the most sacred on earth. * * * The Indians forced the 
whites back with great speed, and killed in the chase one white 
man. By the time the volunteers had reached Stillman'scamp it 
was quite dark, and the troops at the camp hearing the yelling, 
supposed all the whole Black Hawk band were upon them. 
This produced a general panic, and the volunteers fled with their 
comrades whom Black Hawk was chasing." 

This was Stillman's defeat, as told by the veritable governor 
himself. After the volunteers had fled from their camp, while 
crossing a muddy stream close by it, 10 more were killed, says 
the governor, making 11 in all. The fugitives left behind them 
all their camp stores and reached Dixon the next day with such 
exaggerated accounts of the battle as their distempered imagina- 
tions suggested. 

Black Hawk says he had but 40 men engaged, and the gover- 
nor sets the number not above 60. 

This ill-starred skirmish came near causing the murder of the 
noble hearted Shaubena. When he left Black Haw r k's camp, after 
refusing to take part in his proposed council, he went to Dixon. 
Here he was pointed out to the volunteers by a nondescript vag- 
abond named McKabe, as an Indian spy in the service of Black 
Hawk, when in truth, though a white volunteer, he himself had 



Indian Creek Massacre, 371 

enlisted more in the service of Black Hawk than for any good 
he cared to do for the cause in which he was drawing pay, for he 
had ever been associated with the Indians and had married an In- 
dian wife. This apostate of civilization knowing Shaubena to 
be true to the interests of the white men, wished to see him killed, 
but fortunately a humane volunteer seeing the danger, flew to the 
house of Mr. Dixon, who in turn flew to the rescue in time to save 
his life. This done he treated him with deserved respect as a 
guest at his own house, where he introduced him to Govenor 
Reynolds, and General Whiteside.* 

Insignificant as the battle of Sycamore creek was, it was a pro- 
digious affair in the estimation of the hostile Indians, nor was it 
a small affair in the eyes of the borderers, whose fears were aug- 
mented by the alarms spread by the defeated scouts. 

Black Hawk, in order to make the most of his victory, des- 
patched his fleet-footed messengers in every direction, to yelp 
the exultant war-whoop, and carry the war to each exposed fron- 
tier, where the weight of his blows would fall most unexpectedly ; 
but, thanks to Shaubena, he was in a great measure baulked of 
the prey he had counted on as the first-fruits of his victory. 
This old weather-beaten veteran had no sooner heard of the bat- 
tle than he dispatched his son and nephew to Fox River and 
Holderman's Grove settlements, to warn them of danger, while 
he mounted his pony and galloped towards the settlements on the 
Bureau and Indian Creek. They were planting corn, but at the 
receipt of the alarm left their plows in the furrow, and new to the 
nearest fort, which was at Ottawa. 

Unhappily, at Indian Creek, by a treacherous sense of secur- 
ity, a few families paid no regard to the warning, but to their 
dismay a few hours later, at four o'clock in the afternoon, 70 
painted savages were at their very doors. An indescribable scene 
of butchery of the defenseless victims, and resistance ineffectual 
but desperate, immediately succeeded. Fifteen persons were 
killed and horribly mutilated, two } T oung boys escaped by flight, 
two young girls, Sylvia and Rachel Hall, were spared from death 
and abducted as captives. Fortunately, through the influence of 
the Wiunebagoes, they were subsequently ransomed for §2,000. 

Kaperville, which has already been spoken of in a preceding 
chapter, was then an infant settlement, and nearer to Chicago than 
any other. Its history is worth relating, especially as it brings 
interest to the records of early Chicago, and more especially as 
it comes to the writer fresh from the mouth of an eye-witness, 
Mr. Harry T. Wilson, of Wheaton, 111., now ninety-two years old. 
The following is his story: 

*Matson. 



372 Najperville Settlers Warned. 

He started from Ashtabula, Ohio, on the schooner Telegraph, 
in May, 1831, and arrived in Chicago the 15th of July following. 
Col. Owen (Indian Agent) and Col. Hamilton were then the 
most influential men in Chicago, but the Lawtons, who lived at 
the present site of Lyons on the Desplaines, w r ere much depended 
on for public service, as they could speak the Pottawattomie 
language, and were in great favor with them from their long 
residence and just dealings among them. Both had Indian wives. 
Isaac Murray, his young son, R. 1ST. Murray (now judge of the Pro- 
bate Court in Wheaton), Joseph and John Xaper and L. Butter- 
field, came in the same vessel with Mr. Wilson, all of whom on 
their arrival at Chicago, were dissatisfied with the uninviting ap- 
pearance of the place, and after securing a temporary shelter for 
their families, started into the country on foot to find farming 
lands for a home. Passing Lawtons, they kept on to the Dupage 
river, where ISfaperville now is, and began their new settlement. 
Their milling was done at Ottawa, and an ox-team to and from 
it (a distance of nearly a hundred miles) was their only mode of 
transportation. 

With the opening of the succeeding spring their first plowing 
commenced in the new settlement to which many others besides 
those just mentioned had come, when, on the 18th of May a 
friendly Pottawattomie came to them with alarming news. Black 
Hawk's band had fought and defeated the volunteers on Pock 
River, and scalping parties in his service were rapidly approach- 
ing the frontier settlements, and were now within ten miles 
where they had already burned the houses of two advance pio- 
neers, Mr. Hollenbeck and Mr. Cunningham. To give force to 
his statements, the messenger, in awful mimicry, went through 
motions of the scalping process; but this pantomime was quite 
unnecessary, for the new settlers were in hot haste to place the 
friendly walls of Fort Dearborn between themselves and the red 
scouters. The women hastily packed their linen and cooking 
utensils, and the men harnessed the horses. In a short time the 
women and children were on their way over the long flat prairie 
that intervened between their forsaken homes and Fort Dear- 
born, while the men arranged themselves in scouting parties, 
and took positions in the adjacent groves to watch for the terrible 
Sacs. There were yet some distant families who had not been 
warned to leave, and the next day several incidents occurred of 
mistaken identity as to the character of persons seen in the far 
distance, both of whom were white men, and both suspecting 
each other of being savages on the war path.* 

* Mr. McKee, already spoken of, was then living in the settlement, and during 
the hurly-buriy of the hour when the inhabitants were leaving the place, a Mr. 



Fort Beggs Built 373 

On the Dupage river, northwest of Naperville, was a settlement 
at Plainfield, in which Eev. S. R. Beggs lived. This early pio- 
neer of the Methodist faith has published his early experiences 
in a book, from which the following is taken, to show the extent 
of the alarm, and the condition of Fort Dearborn when the fugi- 
tives had taken refuge there: 

"The inhabitants came flying- from Fox river, through fear of their dreaded 
enemy. They came with their cattle and horses, some bareheaded and others 
barefooted, crying ' The Indians ! the Indians! 1 Those that were able hurried 
on with all speed for Danville. It was urged that all should remain quiet till 
they could get their cattle and horses together; but there was too much demor- 
alization for that. One team could not be found, and it was thought better 
to sacrifice one than that the whole should suffer. So it was decided that they 
should move off as silently as possible; yet there was one ungovernable person 
among them who made noise enough in driving his oxen to have been heard a 
mile distant. 

" The hatless man, and one or two others, found their way to Danville in ad- 
vance of the rest, and told their fearful stories — how' the Indians were killing 
and burning a 1 before them, while at this time it is presumed that there was not 
a hostile Indian south of the Desplaines river. At Plain field, however, the 
alarm was so great that it was thought best to make all pcssible efiorts for a 
defense, in case of an attack. My house was considered the most secure place. 
I had two log pens built, one of which served for a barn and the other a shed. 
These were torn clown, and the logs used to buld up a breastwork around the 
house. All the people living on Fox river who could not get farther away, 
made my house a place of shelter. There were one hundred and twenty-five, 
old and young. We had four guns, some useless. Ammuuition was scarce. 
All our pewter spoons, basins and platters were soon moulded by the women 
into bullets, ^s a next best means of defense, we got a good supply of axes, 
hoes, forks, sharp sticks and clubs. Here we intended to slay till some relief 
could be obtained. This was on Thursday, and we remained here till the next 
Sabbath, when the people of Chicago hearing of our distress, raised a company 
of 25 white men and as many Indians, who came to our aid. The Indians, with 
Mr. Lawion at their head, were to go to Big Woods (now Aurora), and General 
Brown with Co onel Hamilton and three men, were to visit Holderrnan's grove 
and then fix upon a place to meet in the evening/' 

Fresh alarms, both real and false, kept coming in to the tenants 
of Fort Beggs, keeping them in constant agitation and indecision as 
as to what was the best course to pursue, till the news of the In- 
dian Creek massacre reached them, when they determined to fly 
before the impending danger, and on the following Thursday at 
seven o'clock in the morning they started for Chicago, the 25 men 
sent from there under Colonel Hamilton, acting as their escort. 

Payne ventured out on horseback to see some depreda ions reported a few 
miles distant. On his return he si.w across the prairie a man on horseback, 
whom he supposed to be an Indian intending to cut him off. He put spurs to 
his horse to gain the advance, but his supposed foe looked upon mm with the 
same suspicion. Both were approaching 1 he same spot, and the race was an 
exciting one to see which should reach it first ; Payne succeeded, and put his 
horse in his neighbor's corn crip (Mr. Hobson's), and took to his hee's for Chi- 
cago. Mr. Hobson soon came up. and seeing the horse of the supposed Indian 
scout sweating and foaming from the effects of the race, the mutual misconcep- 
tion was divulged to him, but Mr. Payne was row bey end sight and hearing, 
panting through the grassy prairie towards Chicago. 



374 Fort Payne Built. 

They reached their destination, a distance of forty miles, the same 
day, which was a forced march for ox- teams, which were part of 
their means of transportation. Again resuming my Beggs narra- 
tive, he says: 

" There was no extra room for us when we arrived in Chicago. Two or three 
families of our number were put into a room fifteen feet square, with as many 
more families, and here we stayed crowding and jamming each other for several 
days, * * * The next morning our first babe was born, and during our stay 
fifteen tender infants were added to our number. One may imagine the con- 
fusion of the scene — children were ciying and women were complaining within 
doors, while without the tramp of soldiery, the rolling of drums, and the roar of 
cannon, added to the din." * 

Some days ere this the news of Stillman's defeat had reached 
Chicago, reviving the old war-spirit in the "breasts of moody vet- 
erans whose bad blood was again stirred up from dormant places 
in their hearts, and their hopes again revived, that the red race 
could arrest the progress of white settlements in the country. 
Billy Caldwell and Alexander .Robinson saw this in their rueful 
countenances, and proposed to Col. Owen to convene a council for 
the purpose of forestalling any sympathy for Black Hawk which 
his fortuitous success might develop among the young Potto- 
wattomie braves. The proposal was accepted, and the council 
held under the shade of a bur oak on the North Side. Robinson, 
Caldwell, Col. Owen, Col. Hamilton, and others, made speeches, 
and a general preference fur peace was the result, a feeble mi- 
nority only dissenting, of whom Big Foot, the famous Winne- 
bago Chief, was the leader. He openly defended Black Hawk's 
cause, and gathering to his standard all the inflammable material 
which loosely lay around the place, he and his disciples vanished 
away, ultimately to be buried in the grave of obscurity always in 
store for a lost cause. 

The alarms at most of the places from which the settlers had 
fled, were false. At Indian Creek only had any considerable 
force of Indians made their appearance, and even here had the 
men all remained at home and defended themselves from some 
covert, their assailants would have retreated rather than risk their 
lives by an attack. 

After all the frontier settlers had taken refuge at Ottawa, Dan- 
ville and Chicago, the able bodied men soon cautiously returned 
to their homes to look to their safety and to finish planting their 
corn. "With this intent the ]N r aperville settlers returned as soon 
as they had safely lodged their families in Fort Dearborn, and as 
a measure of security built a log fort, to which they gave the 
name of Fort Payne, after one of their settlers. 

The news that an Indian war had broken out on the north- 
western frontier, rapidly spread throughout every hamlet in the 

*Early History of The Korth West by S. R. Beggs, P. 103. 



General Scott Ordered to Chicago. 375 

middle and eastern States. A young generation had grown into 
manhood since the last serious Indian disturbance, but its his- 
tory which had been told them by their fathers, was a familiar 
tale, and a repetition of it was now considered possible. The 
press of the country teemed with speculations, as to what was to be 
the resuit of the war which was regarded as of more importance 
than the facts would warrant if known. Abundant food for 
romance was economized out of the situation, and a volume of 
hasty poetry was published, entitled Black Hawk and Scenes in 
The West, which met with a ready sale. Under this pressure 
measures were promptly taken by the administration at Wash- 
ington to meet the crisis. Nine companies were detailed for 
this purpose, and placed under the command of General Scott. 
Among them was a class of cadets (war students), from West 
Point, who took the occasion to put in practice an art which the 
peaceful prosperity of those times threatened with disuse. On 
the 1st of July they arrived at Detroit. This was the great Met- 
ropolitan centre of the Upper Lake country, beyond which was a 
limitless wild relieved only by settlements feeble in numbers, and 
mushroom towns far apart from each other. While General Scott 
was making a brief rest at this place, two men on board his 
transports were taken violently sick and died in a few hours, 
despite the best efforts of his physicians. This was the beginning 
of the asiatic cholera on the Upper Lakes. General Scott hastened 
his departure and proceeded as far as Ft. Gratiot, near the outlet 
of Lake Huron, where he left 280 of his. force besides the young 
cadets, whose warlike zeal was now considerably abated by the 
presence of an enemy in their midst more formidable than Black 
Hawk.* While General Scott is taking his course to Chicago on 
board the steamer Sheldon Thompson, his physicians are eking out 
the fearful hours in their vain attempts to purge the cholera from 
their midst, and the soldiers were dropping, one after another of 
their companies into the sea,f let us see what was going on at 
the place of his destination. 

Going back but a few days, the place had been the centre of 
an excitement seldom equalled even in the casualties of frontier 
life. The large number of fugitives gathered here, all looked to 
CoL Owen to supply them with such necessities as helpless 
women and children must have or perish; and to add to his re- 

*The fate of these young men sent a wave of grief and sorrow throughout the 
country. Nearly all of them died of cholera at the fort or perished like beasts 
of the field alone in some wretched shed or humid forest in their vain attempts 
to fly before the destroyer, for no one dared to receive them within their doors 
for fear of this pestilence. Browns Hist, of 111. 

f30 died on the passage and were thrown into the lake. 



'37.6 General Scbit at * 'Chicago. 

sponsibilities,' most of the husbands of these fugitive women were 
away scouting the country with commendable courage for the 
protection of their homes. Every available space 1 in the fort was 
filled, and hastily constructed camps and temporary sleeping 
« booths were constructed outside of it, within the reach ot its 
guns.* 

While these fugitives were amusing themselves as best they 
could to kill the long days of July, the sound of a cannon broke 
the silence of the morning. All eyes turned towards the lake, 
and there was an approaching sail. Succeeding pufFs'of ^smoke, 
with a corresponding number of reports after brief intervals Of 
time, threw the town into transports, and almost everybody flew 
to the beach. The vessel approached the mouth of the river, 
cast her anchor and lowered her boats. Into these the soldiers 
leaped, and soon came rowing up the Chicago river, amidst the 
huzzas of the assembled spectators. This was a small command 
under Major William Whistler, the son of the same who had 
built the first Ft. Dearborn in 1803-4. f He came as an advance 
of General Scott to make preparations for his arrival; Those 
who were sheltered in the fort were required to leave it, which 
they did at once, and most of them returned to their homes, the 
alarm having now partially subsided* 

A w r eek after the arrival of Captain Whistler — on the 8th of 
July, at the small hours of the morning (2 o'clock); — the inhabi- 
tants of Chicago were awakened by an outcry in the streets; Geri. 
Scott's army had arrived and were in the fort, and his soldiers 
dying with cholera. This king of terrors had made whole con- 
gregations turn pale with fear in the east, and . the settlers of 
Chicago were not proof against its alarms. When the broad 
light of morning came,, says an eye witness, hardly a resident was 
to be seen, for nearly all had fled.- Among the dwellers at the 

* A raft of lumber belonging to ' Noble Bros; (merchants) was~ used for this 
purpose. 

t On board the vessel with Major Whistler, were his wife, two daughters and| 
a son. This wife has for several years past been known to the people of Chica- 
go as Mrs. Col. Whistler, the oldest living' witness of the building of the first 
Fort Dearborn, in 1803^. She was married to Captain Whistler at Detroit, in' 
1802, being then only fourteen years and a few months old, and a few months 
afterwards came with her husband and his father to Chicago to build the fort, , 
as stated in foregoing pages. During the siege of Detroit, in 1812, her husband 
being an officer under General Hull, she with him was taken prisoner at the 
surrender. Since her husband's death, her home has been part of the time in 
Chicago, and part of the time in Newport, Ky., at which latter place she died, 
Feb. 12, 1878, at the age of ninety-two years. Gwinthlean, afterwards the 
wife and now the widow of Robert A. Kinzie, was one of her daughters on \ 
board the vessel, as above described, and to her is the writer indebted for the 
above item,. 



The Cholera. 377 

forks of the river who remained were Indian Robinson, John 
Miller and Benjamin Hall. Dr. DeCamp, the army physician, 
promptly called on these remaining ones and allayed their fears, 
counseling them not to leave, assuring them that the disease 
would be confined to the garrison. The iieeers soon returned and 
but one of them was attacked, but to the devoted garrison there 
was no escape from the appalling situation. To leave the fort 
was to expose themselves to the censure of whomsoever they 
might meet, even if it were possible to do such a thing in defi- 
ance of the sentinel: while to remain inside and witness the 
carnival of death which was going on there, required more com- 
posure than could be expected of the average soldier. 

Black Hawk was now stealthily traversing the country, his war 
parties threatening portions of the frontier. But Gen. Scott was 
in no condition to take the offensive, for it was all the well ones 
could do to take care of the sick and bury the dead. Ere the 
contagion had spent its force ninety of his men had fallen victims 
and been buried without the usual military honors of a soldier 
or even the civil usuages of a coffin. "When the last spark of life 
was supposed to be gone out the corpse was hastened to the 
grave which was ever ready to receive him, and two men with 
spades ready to interpose a few feet of earth between the decaying 
mass of contagion and the living world above ground.* On one 
of these occasions a premature subject was brought enveloped in 
his burial blanket ; but just before he was lowered the uncon- 
scious soldier called for water. He was returned to the hospital, 
and in a few days recovered his usual health. f 

Not even the terrors of Black Hawk's war-parties would have 
driven the surrounding settlers to Chicago while the cholera 
was there, and had this pestilence come 18 cla} T s sooner, when the 
massacre of Indian creek occurred, the unhappy settlers of ISTap- 
erville and Fox river would probably have made a desperate 
determination to defend their homes against the Indians rather 
than encounter the dangers of the new and subtle enemy of man- 
kind, that had even threatened annihilation to the soldiers who 
had come to defend them. 

Leaving Gen. Scott in his fatal duress at Fort Dearborn, let us 
turn to the Indian war parties, .who were now skimming over the 
prairies in voiceless silence, ready to make sudden clashes upon 
places supposed to be defenceless, Black Hawk himself, all the 

*The burying- ground was at the foot of Madison street, on the lake shore. 
About 1840, ana later, the erosion of the lake washed away portions of it, ex- 
posing to view the bones of the victims to the cholera. 

fBrown's History of Illinois, p. 375. 



378 Black Hawk Retreats. 

while at the head of his army, small in numbers, deficient in sup- 
plies and inadequate to meet his adversaries in the open field 
with the faintest hope of success. But however apparent these 
conditions were to him, his ability to impress them upon the un- 
controllable spirits of his followers was wanting. Baulked in his 
attempt to ally the Winnebago and Pottawattomie nations to nis 
standard, he found himself the leader of a horde of sanguinary hot- 
spurs, full of courage and destitute of discretion. It was com- 
posed of the worst elements of his own tribe and a lawless renegade 
escapement from the tribes whose support in an evil hour he had 
counted on, by virtue of the treacherous advice of IsTeopope 
Wabokieshiek and the prophet. 

Most of the fugitives from the disgraceful field of Stillman's 
run reached Gen. Whiteside's headquarters in a few hours, with 
their zeal for Indian fighting spent in a 30-mile race over the 
prairies, by which the horses that carried them were not less ex- 
hausted than the courage of their riders. 

General Whiteside was now in an awkward position. His 
whole army had been without rations for two days, and confined 
to a diet of parched corn. In this emergency, Mr. Dixon w T ith 
patriotic generosity, offered his stock of cattle for their subsistence 
till stores could be brought. The cattle were butchered and the 
hungry volunteers ate the meat without bread or potatoes, al- 
though it was lean and tough.** The next day after the skirmish 
General Whiteside led his entire force to its scene. It was a sol- 
itude. There were the tent-marks of Black Hawk's army and 
the lifeless bodies of 11 slain volunteers divested of their scalps, 
which were doubtless dangling from the belts of as many Sac 
warriors. Black Hawk had gone north, it was supposed, to the 
region of the Four lake country, in Wisconsin.f General White- 
side's army now amounted to 2400 men, and had he followed 
Black Hawk promptly the war might have been ended in two or 
three weeks; for the Indians, encumbered as they were with their 
squaws and children, must have been easily overtaken, and could 
neither have defended themselves against such odds or escaped 
by flight. But the volunteers were by this time surfeited with 
camp life, especially with Indian fighting; the time for which 
they had enlisted had nearly expired, and they presented but a 

* Ford. 

f The Four lake country was composed of the two beautiful lakes that now 
almost environ the picturesque city of Madison and two others below it, all 
joined by the waters of Cattish creek, having- its outlet in Rock river a few 
miles below Kosh-ko-nong lake. So little was then known of this delightful 
region that even its locality was not understood by any of the volunteers, and 
Winnebago pilots were employed to direct the course of the army when it took 
up its march for the place. 



The Volunteers Discharged. 379 

sorry dependence on which to rely for conquering a foe, though 
small, jaded to desperation. Under these surroundings, General 
Whiteside was obliged to yield the honors of a victory at hand 
to the capricious discontent of the volunteers, and they were 
marched back to Ottawa, where they were discharged by Gover- 
nor Eeynolds on the 27th and 28th of May.* 

After the volunteers left Dixon, General Atkinson entrenched 
his camp and remained there with the reinforcements he had 
brought from Ft. Armstrong. The necessity of immediately 
raising new recruits to push the war was pressing, for without 
them the Winnebagoes, and even the Pottawatomies might have 
looked upon Black Hawk as the winner, and joined his standard. 
Accordingly Gov. Eeynolds gave orders for raising 2,000 men to 
take the place of the discharged soldiers. A few of the latter, 
however, with commendable patriotism re-enlisted for a few days 
in order to defend the frontier till the new recruits could be 
brought into service. Col. Jacob Fry commanded them. James D. 
Henry was his lieutenant, and John Thomas, major. Gen.White- 
side, with a zeal both laudable and modest, enlisted in the private 
ranks. The chaff of the late volunteer army returned to their 
homes, and the true soldierly material just organized out of it 
promptly distributed themselves in small parties to the most ex- 
posed frontiers. 

To fight Indians in regular pitched battles is not attended 
with much danger to the white combatants, but to meet them 
noiselessly, crawling on the ground like serpents to attack some 
unsuspecting settlement, puts to test the mettle of a soldier. An 
attack of this kind was planned against the new settlements east 
of Galena, to guard against which Capt. Adam YT. Snyder had 
been detached with a small company. While thus engaged on 
the 17th of June, as the tedious hours of night were wearing 
away, some hostile shots were fired into their camp from an in- 
visible foe. The next morning they followed the intruders to a 
sink-hole hard by, into which treacherous covert the Indians had 
taken refuge. A charge was made upon them, as if a small army 
lay concealed there, which resulted in the killing of the whole, 
only four in number. One of Snyder's men was mortally wounded. 
Eesting under a supposition that they had killed all the Indians 
in the vicinity, they took up their wounded man and started for 
their camp, soon heedlessly scattering in different directions in 
quest of water, when they were suddenly attacked by about 70 
Indians who had watched their motions from the first. The men 
thought only to save themselves by flight, but fortunately Gen. 

* Ford's Hist, of 111., p. 124, 



380 'Rev. Adam Payne, 

Whiteside was among them, and upon him the captain called for 
assistance to rally the men. This veteran declaring lie would 
shoot the first man who started to run, resolution took the place 
of fear, and the men stood their ground. This done, the battle 
began in earnest, but was soon terminated by a shot from Gen. 
Whiteside which killed the leader of the Indians, and they all 
fled without further resistance, carrying away their dead. Two 
white men were killed, and one wounded.** 

Two days before this affair the new levies had arrived at the 
month of the 'Vermilion river, from whence they were inarched 
to Ft. Wilburn, where they were mustered into service and di- 
vided into three brigades, commanded respectively by Gen. 
Alexander Posey, Gen Milton K. Alexander, and Gen. James D. 
Henry. Besides these, a company of rangers under command 
of Maj. Bogart, were to guard the frontier of Southern Illinois, 
while the three divisions were to march in pursuit of Black 
Hawk, the architect of all this commotion, which had now drawn 
over 3000 men from the plow to the soldiers' ranks, besides the 
first volunteers who had just been discharged. 

While these formidable preparations had been on foot, the 
murderous disposition of bad Indians had been ventilated on 
numerous unhappy victims who by chance had been exposed to 
their merciless as well as indiscriminate fury. 

On a bright morning a little past the middle of May, the peo- 
ple of Chicago were attracted to the fort by the voice of singing. 
Just outside its walls stood the tall and manly form of Rev. Adam 
Payne, whose musical and sonorous voice had reached the utter- 
most limits of the town, and drawn thither an audience. A ser- 
mon followed from this eloquent enthusiast, which for fervor and 
religious effect, might have satisfied the ambition of alvnapp or 
a Moody. Soldiers, traders, and even the elastic half-breeds, 
showed signs of contrition which must have been gratifying to 
the itinerant apostle of the Dunkard faith, as his voice mellowed 
into pathos under the sympathetic inspiration of the occasion. 
Mr. Payne was on his way from Ohio to visit his brother, Aaron 
Payne, who lived in Putnam county, 111., and immediately after 
his discourse, to which the people of Chicago had paid such re- 
spectful attention, mounted his horse, and starting on his journey, 
soon vanished out of sight over the prairies. The first night 
he reached the house of Pev. S. P. Beggs, on the present site of 
Plainfield. Here he found his brother-preacher with his house 
barricaded like a fort, so great was the fear of hostile 
Indians, as already stated. But all this did not dishearten 
the Pilgrim Preacher. He had often traveled the route 

* Boss. Hist, of Ogle County. 



Death of St. Vrain. 381 

before, and having preached to the Indians with good ef- 
fect, he relied on his early friendships with them for safety. 
Under this ill-founded sense of security, he started the 
next morning in a .south-west direction across the wilds, 
towards Ottawa, much against the admonitions of his friends, 
who assured him that the country was full of hostile Indians. 
He was mounted on a fleet horse, and by means of a spy-glass 
which he carried in his pocket, he felt sure he could detect the 
character of any Indians he might see, at a sufficient distance to 
keep out of the way, if hostile. This is the last eyer seen of him 
by his friends while liying. Two or three days subsequently, as 
Colonel Moore's regiment were on their way from Joliet to Fort 
Wilburn, his adyance guard, under charge of Colonel Hubbard, 
saw a pair of saddle-bags lying on the prairie about three miles 
from Holderman's Grove. A iresh trail in the tall grass leading 
from the saddle-bags, was immediately followed about an eighth 
of a mile, where the dead body of the preacher was found. The 
head was not severed from the body, says Mr. Hubbard, but the 
scalp was taken, including his long beard. In the saddle-bags 
his hymn book was left by the murderous wretches who killed 
the lamented preacher, for this w T as the last thing which could be 
of any service to them. 

Around the dead b >dy of the preacher the grass was leveled, 
giving proof that he defended himself in a fierce encounter with 
his murderers. Mr. Hubbard caused his remains to be imme- 
diately buried, and his party passed on.* 

After the volunteers had left Dixon, Gen. Atkinson continued 
to hold the place, but dared not take the offensive against Black 
Hawk, especially as he had no means of knowing the amount of 
his force. Under these circumstances, he wished to send a com- 
munication to Galena. The mission was a dangerous one, but 
St. Vrain, a former Indian agent of the Sacs, had the hardihood 
to undertake it. He started, with a few companions, on the 22nd 
of May. Only six days after the volunteers had left, but ere he 
reached his destination, he met a party of Sacs, led by Little 
Bear, whom, having been a former friend, he approached in the 
attitude of peace. But Little Bear was on the war-path, and 
massacred the whole party, except two who had escaped, with as 
little hesitation as he would kill an enemy on the battle-field, 
alleging as a cause that St. Train had assisted Gen. Gaines in 
driving the Sacs across the Mississippi. 

i Soon afterwards, a Mr. Smith was killed near the Blue Mounds, 
and Mr. Winters, a mail contractor, six miles from Dixon. 

*This account has been taken from Mr. Hubbard himself. Others who have 
stated the aifair differently, lack authenticity. 



382 Stephenson's Fatal Skirmish. 

Another man was killed not far from the spot where the lamented 
Mr. Payne was shot, and later, on the 14th of June, five men 
were killed while at work in a corn-field on Spafford's Creek, a 
branch of the Pecatonica. 

All this time Black Hawk himself had not struck a hostile 
blow since the battle at Sycamore Creek, but by means of his 
fleet-footed messengers, as well as his Pottawatomie and Winne- 
bago spies, he was well aware of the preparations which were 
being made to act against him. 

The lead interests of Galena had drawn around the place a 
thriving settlement of Americans to work the mines which had 
for a century before been worked by the French or Indians, some- 
times by the enforced labor of negro slaves. 

In 1827, the county of Jo Daviess had been organized, includ- 
ing within its area several of the present adjacent counties, at 
that time a trackless wild, except for a few miles around the vi- 
cinity of Galena. A devious path, almost concealed with prairie 
grass, led from this place to Yandalia, the State capital, from 
whence the mail was carried once a fortnight, and another to 
Dixon. The remoteness of this settlement from the populous 
portion of Illinois, made it a shining mark for Black Hawk, and 
here he determined to strike his first blow before the new recruits 
came into the field. "With this intent, he sent a small band of 
his marauding scouts thither, to make observations and steal 
horses. On the night of the 18th of June, they succeeded in ac- 
complishing this design by entering the stables attached to Apple 
River Fort, and taking away the horses without detection. This 
was a small stockade on the east bank of Apple river, 12 miles 
from Galena, situated on Sec. 24, in Elizabeth township. The 
next morning, by chance, Capt. T. W. Stephenson arrived from 
Galena with a small command of 12 men, and determined to pur- 
sue the pilferers. The party was well mounted, and iollowing 
their track without difficulty over the grass-clad plains, overtook 
them near Waddam's Grove, in the present county of Stephenson, 
named in honor of the leader of this expedition. The Indians 
took to the grove, and secreting themselves, waited the approach 
of their pursuers, like so many tigers crouching for their prey, 
and Stephenson's men, with more courage than prudence, dis- 
mounted, left their horses in charge of ten of their number and 
followed them with the intention of driving them out of their 
covert and recovering the horses. Three of Stephenson's men 
were killed in the desperate bush-fight, and himself and several 
others wounded, when they retreated, and the victorious Indians 
bore away their booty unharmed.* The dead were left on the 

* Johnston's Hist, of Stephenson lounty. 



Attach on Apple River Fort 383 

ground, but the next day the party returned, and buried them. 

Encouraged by this success. Black Hawk selected 150 of his 
choicest braves and marched against the tort from which the 
horses had been taken. It was a small stockade of logs driven 
into the ground, having a tower at each corner for sharp-shooters, 
and garrisoned with 25 men under command of Captain Stone. 
Clustered around it was a village of miners, w T ho, in the event 
of an Indian attack, relied on it as a place of refuge. As 
Black Hawk's band neared the place, so stealthy was his move- 
ments that they managed to conceal themselves in a thicket only 
half a mile distant without being discovered. From this ambush, 
he intended to dash upon the place just after twilight, before the 
gates of the fort were closed tor the night, and had it not been 
for the indiscretion of one of his own men, the village and fort 
both would probably have been taken and all the inhabitants 
butchered, according to the merciless custom of Indian warfare. 
On the morning of the same day, six brave scouts had volunteer- 
ed to take a message from Galena to Dixon.* Arriving 
at Apple River Fort, they stopped to take dinner, from whence 
they were to take their dangerous course over the prairies. A 
few minutes' travel after they left the fort brought them w T ithin 
range of one of the concealed Indians, who fired on them, wound- 
ing Walshe. His companions kept the Indians at a distance by 
pointing their guns at the foremost ones till the wounded man 
was rescued, and all had made a glorious retreat to Apple Biver 
Fort.f Thus balked in his plan of secrecy, Black Hawk imme- 
diately dashed upon the town. The villagers rushed into the 
fort, leaving their houses at the mercy of the foe. The women 
went to melting lead and moulding bullets, and the men 
and boys seized each a musket to defend the fort. The assault 
was kept up ten hours or more. In vain the Indians fired a tem- 
pest of bullets against the palisades, aiming at the loop-holes, and 
with ferocious yells threatened to assault the place by scaling its 
walls. A number of them had fallen before the steady aim of 
the defenders, and the besiegers at last retreated, after a wanton 
destruction of everything of value in the village. Only one man 
was killed in the fort. 

While Black Hawk's band were wasting their fury against the 
fort, Dixon, one of the intrepid scouts who had been fired upon 
as he, w T ithhis companions, had started for Dixon, was on his way 
to Galena to give the alarm and obtain assistance.^: Col. Strode, 

*Fred Dixon. Win. Kilpatrick, Walshe, Wackelrode and two 

others. 

fBoss' History of Ogle Co. 

% Fred. Dixon had been a distinguished Indian fighter in Missouri. He was 
not the proprietor of Dixon's Ferry. 



384 Battle of Kellogg- s Grove. 

who held command of the place, promptly responded to the call 
by sending a detachment with all haste, but they did not arrive 
till Black Hawk had retreated. Martial law was now declared in 
Galena, as a measure of defense against Black Hawk's scouts. 

The late daring act, though unsuccessful, had sufficiently dem- 
onstrated the courage of the Indians, and their numerous war 
parties infesting the lonesome paths of the prairies gave alarming 
evidence that their numbers had been augmented largely from 
tribes who were friendly as nations, but whose renegade element 
were in the ranks of Black Hawk. 

Gen. Brady, to whom the command of the new recruits had 
been given, being now taken violently sick, Gen. Atkinson was 
appointed to take his place. While these were on their way to 
Dixon, Major Dement was ordered to advance to Galena with 
a spy battalion numbering one hundred and fifty men. Ar- 
riving within thirty-five miles of his destination at Kel- 
logg's Grove, while reposing at the log-cabin of Mr. Kellogg, for 
whom the grove was named, on the 25th of June, he was ap- 
prised of the presence of large bodies of Indians. Three or four 
days before, Black Hawk had been repulsed from Apple River 
Fort — less than a day's march from this place — and it was but a 
reasonable supposition that his band were ambushed near-by — 
perhaps within hearing of his noisy soldiers in the merriment of 
camp-life. Orders werj given to saddle the horses, while he, at 
the head of twenty men, led areconnoitering party. It was none 
too soon, for within three hundred yards of his camp seven In- 
dians were discovered, crawling on the ground, silent as Victor 
Hugo's thugs. His undisciplined men immediately gave chase, 
while he vainly endeavored to call them back for fear of an am- 
buscade. When the pursuit had continued about a mile, a large 
body of Indians, reported at three hundred, but probably con- 
sisting only of the attackers of Apple Elver Fort, sprang from 
their hiding-places like so many goblins. Ferocious yells broke 
the silence of the morning, filling the solitudes around them with 
vengeful warnings. Dement retreated inside the log buildings 
composing Mr. Kellogg's pioneer plantation, sending back occa- 
sional shots on the way. Here he held his foes at a great disad- 
vantage to them; but unwilling to give up the prize, they wasted 
considerable powder and lead against the inflexible walls of his 
retreat till several of their own number fell before the steady aim 
of the besieged.* 

*Among the Indians shot was a daring young chief who ventured very near 
to secure a good aim at the loop-hole. Rev. Zadoek Casey was the one who 
brought him down ; the same who afterwards became Lieut.-Governor of the 
State. On the person of the chief was found a lock of hair which was after- 
wards identified as the same cut from the head of Rachel Hall, who was carried 
into captivity from the Indian Creek massacre. — Malsons Shaubena, p. 111. 



Battle of Pecatonica. 385 

The Indians withdrew after an hour's ineffectual attempt to 
dislodge Dement. Five whites were killed and a larger number 
wounded, which was the result of the ambuscade which the un- 
disciplined soldiers had fallen into, from which perilous position 
their retreat into the log-cabins saved them from a total defeat 
with great slaughter. 

Before the battle, an express had been sent to Gen. Posey for 
assistance, and two hours after the retreat of the Indians he ar- 
rived with his whole force. The next day he made a reconnois- 
sance to the north, in search of the retreating Indians, but not 
finding them, he took up his quarters at Ft. Hamilton, on the 
Pecatonica river. 

The news of the battle soon reached Dixon, where Gen. At- 
kinson, supposing that Black Hawk might attempt a retreat 
across the Mississippi, sent Gen. Alexander to scour its banks 
below Galena, and intercept him; but pending this fruitless 
search, Black Hawk was retreating, unpursued, to his camp at the 
head of Rock river, where his warriors, with their wives and 
children, were now whetting their revenge under the accumulated 
griefs of exile, hunger and war. 

A few days before Dement's battle Colonel Dodge, who com- 
manded the Wisconsin volunteers, went to Fort Hamilton, which 
was the nearest fort to the spot where the five men had been 
killed in a corn-field, as told in a preceding page. From this 
place, at the head of 21 daring Wisconsin volunteers, he sallied 
forth in quest of the hostile Sacs who had committed the out- 
rage. He overtook them on the east fork of the Pecatonica, 
lodged in a grove. The attack was immediately made, and re- 
sulted in killing the entire band of Indians, 17 in number. Col- 
onel Dodge's loss was three killed. This little skirmish tested 
not only the courage, but the muscle, of the dashing volunteers, 
for the conflict was mostly hand-to-hand fighting.* 

After Dements fight, General Atkinson, learning bv Wapan- 
sie, a friendly Pottawatomie, that Black Hawk had returned to 
his camp, he made preparation to follow him. Colonel Fry was 
ordered to march in advance, for the especial purpose of meeting 
and welcoming a company of friendly Pottawatomies, recruited, 
at Chicago, and led by Billy Caldwell and Shaubena and Geo. £. 
Walker, while he and General Henry, with their respective brig- 
ades, followed, taking their course up the east side of Pock river, 
with the intention of attacking Black Hawk in his camp. At the 
same time General Alexander was ordered to advance up the west 
side of the river, a few miles west of its bank, while Colonel 
Dodge and General Posey were to march from the waters of the 

♦Smith's Doc. Hist. Wis., Vol. I, p. 275. 



386 Battle of Wisconsin Heights. 

Pecatonica, striking Sugar creek, which flows southwardly 
through Green county, Wis., thence to the most southern of the 
Four Lakes. While this sweeping invasion was making its way 
northwardly, Black Hawk was fleeing before it as fast as his 
scanty means of transportation would allow, but ere he was able 
to cross the Wisconsin river he was overtaken by General Hen- 
ry's division, who gave him battle on its southern bank, at a place 
called Wisconsin Heights, about fifty miles below Ft. Winnebago, 
which resulted in a loss of 50 to him while in his retreat across the 
river. General Henry's loss was 1 killed and 8 wounded. 

White Crow a friendly Winnebago chief, was in General 
Henry's ranks during the battle, but unfortunately for Black 
Hawk, the Crow left the camp of the volunteers and started for 
Fort Winnebago as soon as darkness had put an end to the 
fight, for during the night General Henry's sentinels heard Indian 
voices calling to them, but no one could interpret their words, 
and no notice was taken of them. These were ofters to surrender* 
and had the White Crow been present to interpret them the aw- 
ful fate that followed to Black Hawk's band might have been 
averted. 

During the night Black Hawk succeeded in getting his wretched 
fugitives across the Wisconsin, whence they fled towards the 
Mississippi, indulging in the despairing hope that they could 
reach its banks and find an asylum in the mysterious wilds be- 
yond, should they be able to cross before their pursuers overtook 
them. General Atkinson, who was in hot pursuit of the Sacs, 
soon arrived at Helena, on the Wisconsin river, where the Wis- 
consin volunteers, under Colonel Dodge, effected a junction with 
him. Crossing over to the North side, they soon struck the trail 
of Black Hawk. It was during the last days of July, and the 
heat of midsummer soon decomposed the bodies of the dying 
fugitives, and the stench left in their wake was sometimes almost 
insupportable. Some of these dead were those who had been 
wounded in the late battle, and others were women or children 
who had surrendered at last to starvation and exhaustion. 

On the 2nd of August, the advance, under Colonels Doage and 
Zachary Taylor, overtook and attacked them, the main army, 
under General Atkinson meantime pressing on, supposing that 
the main body of the Sacs was in front of them. 

In this conviction the}' were outwitted by the wily Black Hawk, 
who, intending to escape with his main body while amusing his 
pursuers with a feint, had sent them to the banks of the Missis- 
sippi, at the mouth of the Bad Axe. General Henry, who was in 
the rear, learned this through Major Ewing, and dashing at them 

^Smith's Wis. Vol. 1, P. 280. 



Battle of Bad Axe. 387 

with his whole force, the battle of Bad Axe was fought, General 
Atkinson reaching the scene only in time to see the ground cov- 
ered with slain Indians, and the flying remnant vainly trying to 
cross the river by swimming. The loss of the volunteers was 17 
killed, and more wounded.* 

Immediately after Henry's battle at Wisconsin Heights, he had 
dispatched a messenger to Prairie du Chien to give the news. 
He arrived there on the 23d of July, and Colonel Loomis, who 
then held command of Ft. Crawford, dispatched the steamer enter- 
prise up the Mississippi to intercept Black Hawk, should he 
attempt to cross. Arriving at the mouth of Black river, they 
found 40 Winnebagoes with 28 canoes. They were friendly In- 
dians, but doubtless under a compassionate sympathy for their 
unhappy kindred in their desperate extremity, had assembled 
there to assist them across the river. Under this impression they 
were seized and sent to Fort Crawford. The Enterprise was now 
abandoned because she was a slow boat, and the Steamer War- 
rior, armed with a six-pounder was sent up the river in her stead. 
There are two islands on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Bad 
Axe, and on one of these the most of the defeated Sacs with their 
women had found a breathing place after the battle. Many of 
them swam thither for they had but one canoe, which was used 
to transport the feeble squaws and children. To this isolated 
retreat, Colonel Taylor at the head of 150 regulars followed them, 
and charged upon the pent up fugitives, while Captain Throck- 
morton opened lire on them from the warrior. They made a des- 
perate defense, but all fell except one who escaped by swim- 
ming.f 

Among those who had not taken refuge on the island, was 
Black Hawk himself and less than a hundred of his band. Black 
Hawk fled to Prairie LaCross, a Winnebago village, where he sur- 
rendered himself to Cha-e-tar, and One Eyed l)ecorra. Under 
their custody the conquered chief with the prophet were taken to 
Prairie du Chien, and delivered to General Street the agent of the 
Winnebagoes at that place on the 27th of August.^: 

*There seems to have been no small amount of rivalship, from the first, among 
the various divisions of the volunteers, as to which should have the first chance 
at the Sacs. It was by disobedience to the orders of the commanding- General 
(Atkinson), that General Henry had by a hasty march overtaken and fought 
Black Hawk on the Heights of the Wisconsin, for which offense General Atkin- 
son had placed him in the rear in the continued pursuit, but Black Hawk's suc- 
cessful feint at Bad Axe had by chance again given General Henry the first 
chance at his desperate and starving warriors. 

See Smith's Wis., Vol. I, p. 415.- Reynolds' My Own Times, p. 415. 

fCaptain Estes, Account, See Doc. Hist. Wis. Vol. Ill, P. 230. 

tOn delivering the captives One Eye said: We have done as you told us. 
We always do as you tell us, because we know it is for our good. * * We 



388 Last Fatal Retreat. 

Of the miserable remnant, about 50 were taken prisoners, and it 
is probable that a few fled to the Winnebagoes and found a shelter, 
but it is known that some succeeded in crossing the Mississippi, 
even in the face of their numerous enemies. They had no sooner 
landed on this savage shore than the Sioux, their ancient enemies, 
fell upon the unhappy outcasts, and sent them across another 
river to the Happy Hunting Grounds* The thorny path they 
had traveled since they had returned to Illinois was now ended. 
If this world's griefs can offset transgressions, the balance could 
not be greatly against them to be entered to account on the other 
side. 

Let us now return to General Scott, whom we left at Fort 
Dearborn. ~No news was obtainable from the seat of the war, 
and before he would take any offensive steps, it was necessary to 
communicate with General Atkinson. From the alarming news 
that had thus far reached Chicago it was then supposed that Black 
Hawk's war parties were way-laying every path through the prai- 
ries that intervened between Fox river and the Galena settlements, 
but yet in the face of these fancied dangers, an intrepid frontierer 
was found who volunteered to carry a message from General 
Scott to the camp of General Atkinson, which was supposed to be 
on Rock .River. This was John K. Clark (who it may not be 
forgotten, was the son of Margaret the captive). He started on 
the mission with two daring half breeds, stealthily making their 
way over treeless plains, and creeping through silent groves to 
Rock River, thence following up the trail of his army reached his 
camp and delivered the message. All haste was now made to 
return to Chicago, which they safely effected after a week's absence 
from the place and delivered General Atkinson's reply to General 
Scott. The two inconsiderate half breeds tarnished their laurels 
thus gained by a carousal in a villainous whisky den, which then 
stood about where the well known house of Fuller & Fuller is now 



want you to keep them safe. If they are to be hurt, we do not want to see it. 
Wait until we are gone before you do it. 

Black Hawk spoke as follows: * * My warriors fell around me; it began 
to look dismal. I saw my evil day at hand. The sun rose clear on us that 
morning, and at night it sank in a dark cloud, and looked like a ball of fire. 
This was the last sun that shone on Black Hawk. He is now a prisoner to the 
white man, but he can stand the torture. He is not afraid of death. He is no 
coward. Black Hawk is an Indian. He has done nothing an Indian need be 
ashamed of. He has fought the battles of his country against the white men 
who came year after year to cheat them, and take away their lands. * * * 
Black Hawk is satisfied. He will go to the world of spirits contented. His 
father will meet and reward him. The white men do not scalp the head, but 
thev do worse; they poison the heart. * * * Farewell to my nation! Fare- 
well to Black Hawk. 

*Doc. Hist. Wis. Vol. Ill, P. 284. 



General Scottfs Advance. 389 

located. Here they spent the night in dissipation, and the next 
morning Benjamin Hall (my informant), saw them come from 
the place, lay down on the ground, and die with Cholera at fif- 
teen minutes' notice. 

About the 20th of July, General Scott now resolved to go to the 
Desplains river and encamp, thinking the change might be bene- 
ficial to the health of his men. He arrived there about the 20th 
with his whole command and encamped at the present site of 
Riverside. His baggage train consisted of about fifty wagons 
which, with the horses to draw them, had been purchased at Milan, 
Ohio, and sent by teamsters to Fort Dearborn, where they arriv- 
ed a few days after the general had come to the place. 

Robert ET. Murray, whose father had recently settled in Xaper- 
ville (as already stated), was a lad of seventeen years, and en- 
listed in the service of General Scott as teamster, to drive one 
of the teams across the country. General Scott, with 12 men 
and two baggage-wagons, had started in advance, leaving Colo- 
nel Cummin gs in command of the main body, which was to fol- 
low as soon as the health of the soldiers would permit. In ten 
days the train started, carrying in the wagons the few sick sol- 
diers who had not yet sufficiently recovered from cholera attacks 
to stand the fatigue of marching. Their route lay through Gil- 
bert's Grove, on the DuPage, across the Fox river three miles 
below Elgin; thence through the Pigeon woods to the present 
site of Belvedere; thence to an old Indian village at the present 
site of Beloit. Here the train rested a week, during which time 
a messenger came to the commanding officer, informing him of 
the battle of Bad Axe, with orders to proceed to Rock Island. 

In obedience to these instructions, the train again started over 
the prairies in a more southerly direction, passing the present 
site of Rockford, which was then a wild of great beauty, where 
they encamped for the night. Young Murray had by this time 
attracted the eye of Colonel Cummings who promoted him to 
the position of driving his own carriage, and gave the charge of 
the team from which he had been taken, to his first driver. Here 
he soon became initiated into the ways of some " great men," by 
being offered his choice of brandy or wine as often as the Colo- 
nel became thirsty, which was five or six times a clay. Young 
Murray, to his surprise, declined the brandy, but retained the 
good opinion of his master, nevertheless. A few days' travel 
down Rock river now brought them to their destination. The 
troops were left at Fort Armstrong, and the teams sent back to 
Chicago, where they were sold.* 

*While the writer is making- up this chapter, Mr. Murray is on the bench 
holding his court but few rods distant in the village of Wheaton. 



390 Death of Black Hawk. 

On the 9th of September the Indian prisoners were sent to 
Jefferson Barracks, just below St. Louis, Irom which place Black 
Hawk, with the Prophet, was sent to Washington, arriving there 
the following April, 1833. On the 26th they were sent to Fort- 
ress Monroe, where they remained till the 4th of June, when 
they were ordered to be sent back to their own country. 

On the way Black Hawk was received with ovations in all the 
large cities through which he passed. Even ladies of high rank 
flattered him with smiles and compliments, to whom he, not 
wishing to be outrivaled in politeness (in his way), responded: 
Pretty squaw! Pretty squaw! 

On returning to his country, he was restored to his tribe as a 
chief, subordinate to Keokuk. He spent his last days in quiet- 
ness, dying on the 3d of October, 1838, at his home on the Des 
Moines river, in Iowa. He was buried in a sitting posture, after 
the Indian custom, near the present village of Iowaville in Wa- 
pello county, and a mound six feet high raised over the remains 
of the ill-starred chieftain, who must ever stand recorded as The 
last native defender of the soil of the Northwest* 

*Our Mr. Lincoln, whom Chicago delights to claim, at least as one of her trans- 
cient citizens, served in the Black Hawk War six weeks, but humorously says 
that he fought nothing but mosquitoes. . Out of this experience grew an incident 
which is told by Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, in a pamphlet published by the Chicago 
Historical Society, as follows : 

"When Major Anderson visited Washington after his evacuation of Fort 
Sumter, he called at the White House to pay his respects to the President. 
After the Chief Magistrate had expressed his thanks to Anderson for his conduct 
in South Carolina, Mr. Lincoln said: ' Major, Do you remember of ever meeting 
me before? 1 'No, 1 replied Anderson; ' 1 have no recollection of ever having 
had that pleasure.' 'My memory is better than yours', said Mr. Lincoln. 
■ You mustered me into the United States service as a high private of the Illinois 
volunteers at Dixon's Ferry, in the Black Hawk War." ' 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Chicago as Seen by Philo Carpenter in 1832 — Eli B. Wil- 
liams' Report of Chicago in 1833 — Cook County Organized 
— The Town of Chicago Organized under a Board of Trus- 
tees — The Mouth of the River Opened — The First Public 
Loan — Indian Treaty of 1830 — Ditto of 1SSS at Chicago — 
Graphic Description of Chicago and the Treaty by an En- 
glish Traveler — The Indian Titles Extinguished — The In- 
dians Removed. 

The great plateau of northern Illinois was now vacant. Its 
unmeasured plains over which the summer winds waved the tall 
prairie graves into changing hues of green, before the occasional 
traveler who crossed them, laid out temptingly before the em- 
igrant. The Indian was gone. They had left nothing but the 
graves of their fathers. They had not even marred the beauty of 
the groves which stood upon the rolling heath like islands of the 
ocean, in majestic solitude. The wolves and a few deer were their 
only tenants, except the birds. The conquest of the North west 
was now completed. The spasmodic throe of lingering native 
power that had been quickened into a fleeting activity by the 
courage of Black Hawk, had vanished. Many of the men who 
witnessed all this are still living and jostling their way along the 
stage of life in its accumulating activity, that the march of pro- 
gress has stimulated to high-watermark amongst us. But a few 
years more will see the last one of them gathered into the fold 
among their fathers, and then our age will descend into history 
as an epoch of progress unparalleled in its records. 

There are now (1880), two men living in Chicago who were 
residents of the place before the Black Hawk War, and have 
been representatives of its vital interests, and witnessed its 
growth from a lea of sand-ridge, marsh and forest, to a city of over 
half a million ; — have seen it in its gradations from an obscure mil- 
itary post on the extreme verge of* Western settlements, to the 
commercial center of the great Northwest.* One of these, Gurdon 

* Besides these two is another, Mr. F. D. Park, who arrived at Chicago August 
20th, 1831, and is still a resident of the city, an esteemed citizen, who has never 
intermingled in public affairs to make himself widely known. 

(391) 



392 Novel Mode of Traveling. 

S. Hubbard, has already been memorized in preceding chapters, 
as his active life has interwoven its records into Chicago history. 
The other is Pliilo Carpenter, who is associated w T ith later records 
of Chicago. 

He came to the place in 1S32, starting from Troy, !N". Y., in 
May. He took the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and from thence took 
passage on the steamer Enterprise (Capt. Walker, Master), to 
Detroit. Four and a half days was then the usual time for this 
passage. Detroit was the Western limit of established lines of 
Western transportation, but a mail coach consisting of a Penn- 
sylvania covered wagon with a concave body, was drawn by two 
horses slowly through the wilderness road to Niles once a week, 
from whence the mail was carried to Chicago on horseback, a 
half-breed generally performing the service. From Detroit to 
Niles, Mr. Carpenter with another gentleman named G. W. 
Snow T , came in the mail coach. Niles was an old settled French 
trading post, and at this time enjoj^ed a fair trade, principally with 
Indians. Supplies were transported to the place from Detroit 
by way of the lake to the month of the St. Joseph, which latter spot 
had been an important point ever since La Salle had built a 
fort he"re in 16S0. From here freight was transported to ^files 
by means of flat boats, propelled by shoulder poles, as our worthy 
Mr. Lincoln used to move his lumber rafts through sluggish wa- 
ters when a boatman. 

Mr. Carpenter witli Mr. Snow took passage from !NTiles to the 
mouth of the St. Joseph River on one of these boats, expecting 
to complete the last part of their journey on board a sloop which 
made occasional trips from this place to Chicago; but in this they 
were disappointed. The last trip made by this craft to Chicago 
was just after General Scott's arrival at the place, and so great 
was the terror caused by the contagion that he brought, that no 
inducement could influence the master of the sloop to return. In 
this emergency two Indians came to Mr. Carpenter, and by means 
of signs offered to convey him and his companian to their destina- 
tion in a small boat along the shore around the head of the lake. 
Five dollars was the fare, half down and the balance at the end of 
the journey. The terms being accepted, the Indians took to the 
woods, and soon returned with several long strips of elm bark. 
These were quickly tied together till a long tow line was impro- 
vised and attached to the rude boat, which was the excavated 
trunk of a tree. One Indian seized the line and started off on a 
trot, tn^fjinff the clumsy craft along the shore, while the other 
steered. By taking turns a speed of five miles an hour was at- 
tained. When the first night overtook them, as chance would 
have it, a schooner lay stranded on the beach, and its captain in- 
vited the travelers to accept his hospitalities. A supper of veni- 



Chicago in 1833. 393 

son, a good berth and breakfast followed. In the morning the 
Indians took their places, one at the helm and the other at the 
tow line; the travelers seated themselves in the boat; a few extra 
strains of the swarthy toiler raised the speed and rapidly he tug- 
ged along the sandy shore — the exponents of a civilization destined 
to exterminate his own race. The next night found them 
at the mouth of the Calumet. Here a Mr. Mann kept a tavern, 
and also a ferry, but he with his family had fled to Chicago, lest 
some Indian on the war-path should attack them to subserve the 
interests of Black Hawk. Mr. Carpenter and his companion 
entered his forsaken house and spent the night, and in the morn- 
ing resuming their journey in the usual way, soon came to the 
place where the Douglas Monument now stands. Here a settler 
lived named Joel Ellis, well known to some of the old settlers 
now living. One of the Indians was now attacked with colic, 
perhaps caused by the fear of the cholera, and both refused to pro- 
ceed farther, but Mr. Ellis yoked his oxen to a lumber wagon, the 
travelers seated themselves in it, and after an hour's toiling over 
the sand ridges, the American flag waving over the block house 
at Fort Dearborn met their view. 

The streets of the embryo town had been staked out but no 
grading had been done, not even a dirt road thrown up. A 
wagon track took a circuitous way from one house to another, ac- 
commodating itself to the oozy sloughs which seamed the land- 
scape. The places connected by this track were first the fort 
with its adjuncts, occupying the grounds south of the present 
Rush street bridge, from which the path took a w T estern direction 
to Russell Heacock's log building, which stood on the bank of 
the river at the junction of a deep run, the mouth of which was 
where State street now comes to the river. A foot-log across it 
gave Mr. Heacock a nearer way to the post office, which was then 
at the Fork* (Wolf's Point), but the main road curved around the 
head of this run, or rather to a place above its abrupt bank where 
it could be crossed. The road next threaded its way to a log 
building about at the present corner of Clark and water streets, 
where Geo. W. Dole and Oliver Newberry kept a commission 
house. 'The next building on the road in its western course was 
a new frame, the first of* its kind ever erected in Chicago; it 
was located near the present corner of La Salle and Water streets, 
built by P. F. W. Peck, and occupied by him as a dry goods 
store. It stood till the great fire of 1871, contrasting strangely and 
incongruously with its adjacent companions. The next building 
on the primitive highway was the post-office, at which was also a 

*Mr. Heacock came to Chicago in 1827. He was the first lawyer who settled 
at the place. — W. H. Hcjulbut. 



39rt Topography of Chicago. 

general store kept by John S. C. Hogan. It stood where "Water 
street now meets Lake street diagonally, just east of the bridge. 
Immediately south of this on Market street, stood a log tavern kept 
by Mark Beaubien. This was sometimes called the Sauganash, 
but it was not the famous Hotel known by that name subsequent- 
ly erected about at the present corner of Franklin and Lake 
Streets. Besides these buildings, was the residence of John Bap- 
tise Beaubien, south of the fort on the bank of the river, past its 
turn as it took its sandy way into the lake. These are all the im- 
provements on the South side, as reported by Mr. Carpenter on 
his first arrival at Chicago. 

Speaking of the area occupied by the sand-bar and river itself, 
east of the elevated bank on which the fort stood, he says it was 
ever changing in form, and such portions of it as one day ap- 
peared above water were liable to be submerged the next day. 
Nor was the mouth of the river any more permanent in its loca- 
tion, for there was no spot from North to South in this low heath 
of moving sands that had not at certain times been its channel, 
in obedience to the whimsical action of the winds and waves. 
At its immediate mouth the river was not more than twelve inches 
deep during ordinary summer seasons, while a few feet above, it 
deepened to fifteen feet or more, but the freshets of Spring, or an 
excessive rain at any time might produce a current in the river 
sufficient to clear away the sand at its mouth to a depth as low as 
the botton of the river above. This depth could only be main- 
tained as long as the swollen waters were able to resist the coun- 
ter action of the waves, which would quickly choke the mouth 
of the river again when its active current subsided. 

Geology has revealed the history of many of the physical 
changes which are apparent on the face of nature in its present 
adaptation to our wants, and of these changes observation, even 
unaided by science, shows how the recent finishing up of great 
geological changes has been completed. That lake Michigan has 
been receding for several centuries does not admit of a doubt 
when one carefully notes the topography of its south-western 
water-shed. The rapids of the Illinois river at Marsailles once 
bore the same relation to the great lakes on the west that Niag- 
ara Falls now bears on the east. The evidence of this is found 
in the valley which once constituted the gently sloping banks 
of a western outlet of the lakes. This must have been when the 
face of the lake was thirty or more feet higher than its present 
level. At that time the Desplaines river must have emptied 
into the lake, and as the latter receded, its waval action, by ob- 
structing its mouth, as it subsequently did the mouth of the Chi- 
cago river, turned it into the Illinois Valley. Even as late as 
1849, during a great flood, the swollen waters of the Desplaines 



Chicago in 1833. 395 

found their old channel to the lake through the Chicago river, 
carrying shipping and bridges along in its irresistible career. 
How much more lake Michigan may recede depends on the friable 
nature of the rock at Niagara Falls and the bed of the Detroit 
river, which as yet seems to be inflexible enough to give many 
centuries lease of the present height of the lake before it can re- 
cede sufficiently to leave Chicago as an inland city. Till then 
she may drink of the brimming cup which the economy of na- 
ture has brought to her lips, and if, by the wisdom and justice 
of our country's laws, our government stands and continues to 
dispense an even measure of justice to all its subjects till the ev- 
olutions of nature shall have changed the location of our large 
cities, we shall present a spectacle never before recorded in the 
world's history. 

The solution of this problem belongs to the future. It will 
not follow the mandates of our dogmas or the whims of specula- 
tion, but a thousand years hence the merits of Oriental, Grecian 
and Christian civilization will be compared with each other by 
Transcendental Philosophy, which is always parsimonious in its 
praise and lavish in its censure; meantime we shall wag along, 
each one doing all he can to contribute his mite to make up the 
sum total of the grandeur of his own age as far as the promotion 
of his own interest can do it; and the verdict of time will be 
pronounced in favor of that civilization whose policy the most 
largely turns private enterprise into, and secures private inter- 
ests in, channels not antagonistic to, but in harmony with the 
public good. Let us convince our posterity that Christian civi- 
lization can win in this sublime rivalry. Let us return to Chi- 
cago, which we left where Mr. Carpenter found it. 

Mr. Eli. B. Williams may be regarded as next in chronologi- 
cal order of the living witnesses of early Chicago. He is a native 
of Connecticut, and with his wife arrived at Chicago, April 14th, 
1833. From Detroit they came in their own private carriage 
across the country through Ypsilanti and Niles, coming to the 
shore of the lake at the residence of Mr. Biella, who with his 
family were spoken of in the previous chapter. From this place 
they followed the immediate shore of the lake to Chicago, ferry- 
ing over the Calumet at Mr. Man's ferry, arriving at the place 
the next day in the afternoon. Leaving the Fort at their right 
they bent their course across the open prairie towards the fork of 
the river. Here they found a log tavern kept by Mark Beaubien. 
Several Indians were lounging around the door, in the listless 
manner peculiar to their race, which was not calculated to assure 
a lady from Connecticut with confidence, and Mr. Williams, at 
the suggestion of his wife, drove across the river on a floating 
log bridge, to a tavern kept by Abner Taylor. Here they stopped 



396 Chicago Incorporated. 

several days to take observations, after which Mr. Williams de- 
cided to settle here, under an impression that a late appropriation 
which Congress had made to improve the river and harbor, to- 
gether with the canal when finished, would insure a respectable 
sized town, where the religious and educational institutions of his 
native State might be re-produced. 

The entire white population of Chicago did not then exceed 
200 persons, but there was a much larger Indian population, 
which, though transient, served to swell the volume of trade, and 
Mr. Williams concluded to open a store at once. His place of 
business was on South Water street, east of Geo. W. Doles. 
This he built, making the frame from green timber, cut from the 
forests on the North Side, hewn to a snap-line* with a broad-axe 
in the old-fashioned way. The weather boarding came from St. 
Joseph, which then furnished Chicago her lumber as much as it 
does now her peaches. The flooring came from a saw mill which 
had just been built by the enterprising Mr. Naper, at Naper- 
ville, who must be recorded as one of the pioneers in the lumber 
trade to Chicago. 

In 1831, the county of Cook had been organized, including 
within its area the present counties of Dupage, Lake, McHenry, 
Will and Iroquois, receiving its name from Daniel P. Cook, a 
member of Congress from Southern Illinois. Samuel Miller, 
Gholson Kercheval and James Walker, were sworn into office as 
County Commissioners, March 8th 1831, by John S. C. Tlogan, 
•Justice, Wm. Lee was clerk, and Archibald Clybourn Treasurer, 
Jedediah Wormly was county Surveyor. Three election districts 
were organized, one at Chicago, one on the Dupage River, and 
one on Hickory Creek.f 

It was not until two years later that the town of Chicago took 
any action towards organizing, when under general Statute law, 
they held an election for this purpose, August 10th, 1833, and in- 
corporated the embryo town. Only twenty eight votes were cast, 
which was but a feeble constituency with which to start a metrop- 
olis. P. J. Y. Owen, Geo. W. Dole, Mederd Beaubien, John 
Miller and E. S. Kiinberly, were elected as trustees. A log jail 
was built on the public square where the court house has since 
been erected. An estray pen was also built at an expense of 
812.00. 

*This was a straight scribe mark made along the entire length of a log by 
means of stretching a chalked string from end to end on it, making it fast at 
each extremity. The string was then raised up perpendicularly from the middle 
and being let down with a snap, left a chalk mark on the log as a guide by 
which to hew it square. This was the process in the early day of making square 
timber for frames, instead of sawing them as done at the present day. 

fThis was the Southern Precinct, Hickory Creek being a branch of the Des- 
plaines in what is now Will County. 



First Public Loan. 397 

The next year Mr. Williams was elected President of the Coun- 
cil Board of Trustees. Entering upon the responsibility of his 
office he found many difficulties in his path. There were various 
public improvements necessary to be made to keep pace with the 
progress of such public works as had been projected at govern- 
ment expense, such as the Illinois and Michigan Canal and build- 
ing the north pier, and opening a straight channel for the mouth 
of the river through the sand bar around which it had formerly 
formed a circuitous delta.* 

Clark street was then the principal highway from north to 
south. During excessive rains it was impassable in its low 
places, and it was the first pressing want of the town to make a 
ditch on each side of it. The treasury was empty, and a loan to 
accomplish this end was necessary. By dint of much importuni- 
ty, Mr. "Williams succeeded in negotiating one for $60.00 with 
Messrs. Strahan & Scott, by becoming personally responsible for 
its payment. The amount was faithfully applied to the purpose 
for which it was intended, and thus the public credit and im- 
provement of Chicago began, which have since been witnessed 
up to this date (1880) by him who inugurated them. Both Mr. 
Williams and his wife are in their full mental vigor, though ad- 
vanced in years. 

Besides the honorable record of Mr. Williams in Chicago, an 
increased interest gathers around his recollections, from the fol- 
lowing incident: At Toland, Connecticut, in his father's house, 

*From Mr. Ezekiel Morrison, who came to Chicago soon after the arrival of 
Mr. Williams, in 1833, the following has been learned relative to the opening 
of the mouth of the river directly to the lake. In 1833 work was commenced at 
cutting through the sand-bar to straighten the Chicago River. It was done un- 
der the direction of Major Handy, who had charge of the government work. 
Cribs were made filled with stone and sunk across the main channel of the river 
to turn its course across the sand-bar directly into the lake, as it now runs. 
The next year, as good fortune would have it, the Desplaines overflowed the 
country intervening and caused an unusual flow of water through the Chicago 
River. Only a slight opening was made in the sand-bar, and the accumulated 
waters did the rest. A steamboat came through the opening thus made the 
same Spring (1834). The north pier was then commenced to secure the ad- 
vantage thus gained. Four hundred feet was made the first year, and its 
progress continued from year to year to its present dimensions. Immediately 
after the channel was pierced through, the wind commenced drifting sand from 
the north bank into the river, and cribs had to be set into the bank to prevent 
the filling up of the channel. The action of the waves was also a constant 
source of annoyance, and threatened to destroy the utility of the work already 
done, till the north pier was extended a sufficient distance into the lake to reach 
water so deep that the sand could not be moved around it by surface agitation. 
To extend this pier sufficiently to accomplish this, has been, and is still, a work 
perhaps not completed, but destined yet to engage the attention of the Chicago 
Board of Public Works. Meantime the waval action is constantly making ac- 
cretions north of the pier. It has already made a belt of land half a mile into 
the lake and the process is still going on. 



398 The First Steam Engine. 

John Buel Fitch planned and built the first steam engine ever 
made. He, with his assistants, worked secretly in the basement 
of the house, and continued their labors till the engine was in 
practical working order; the first of its kind which was destined 
to revolutionize the transporting as well as the manufacturing 
interests of the world, and control the destinies of nations. 
While at work on it, says Mr. Williams, the screeching of files, 
the clink of hammers, and hissing of steam, which was heard 
outside, excited the credulity and superstition of the age, till 
witchcrafVwas suspected, and the whole neighborhood were beset 
with fear from what was going on in the mysterious basement. 

John Fitch lived and died in penury and want, but through 
his invention the railroad and manufacturing millionaires of 
Europe and America grew into power, and the present magni- 
tude of Chicago is already traceable to the success of that experi- 
ment that from the basement of the elder Mr. Williams' house 
crowned the twilight of the eighteenth century with everlasting 
fame. 

In the year 1832 the Pottawattomies of Indiana and Michigan, 
on the 20th of October, at Camp Tippecanoe, in Indiana, con- 
cluded a treaty with the United States, by the terms of which the 
country intervening between their cession of 1816, along the line 
of the proposed canal and the Indiana line, was sold to the United 
States in the following terms: After making many reservations 
to private Indians for services rendered the State, the United 
States agreed to pay to the Pottawattomies an annuity of $15,000 
for twenty years, besides an annuity of $600 to Billy Caldwell, 
$200 to Alexander Robinson, and $200 to Pierre Le Clerc, during 
their lives. Further, the sum of $28,746 was to be paid to liqui- 
date certain private claims against the Indians, and merchandise 
to the amount of $45,000 was to be delivered to them on signing 
the treaty, and an additional amount of merchandise, to the value 
of $30,000, was to be delivered to them at Chicago the next year 
(1833> 

On the 27th of October, the same year, 1832, and at the same 
place (Tippecanoe), the Pottawattomies of Indiana sold to the 
United States all the remainder of the lands which they still held 
as a tribe, in Michigan, south of Grand river, in Indiana, and in 
Illinois. 

This treaty did not release the claim of the Pottawatomies, 
Chippewas and Ottawas, of Illinois, to such lands as laid north 
and west of the cession of 1816, along the track of the proposed 
canal, and it will thus be seen that almost all the northern por- 
tion of Illinois were still in undisputed Indian possession. Ap- 
propriations to build the Illinois and Michigan canal had already 



Great Indian Treaty. 399 

been made by the State of Illinois, to whom the alternate sec- 
tions of pubiic lands for six miles on. each side of the canal had 
been donated by the Government for this purpose. 

Since the Black Hawk war, which had brought the country 
within the knowledge of so many enterprising young men, emi- 
gration was coining in rapidly and occupying the lands, although 
they had not yet been surveyed, but these moral pre-emptors did 
not want any better claim for an ultimate title than would result 
from actual possession. Speculators were also coming into Chi- 
cago with cash to make investments, and it was all important 
that the Indian title to such portions of northern Illinois as the 
Sacs and Foxes had not already given up, should be speedily ex- 
tinguished. To this end the Chippewas, the Ottawas and the 
Pottawattomies of Illinois, were summoned to a great council 
to be held in Chicago in September, 1833. Great preparations 
were made for this event. Besides the interest the Indians had 
in it directly as to the amounts of money and goods coming to 
them on parting with their lands, they were the unwitting in- 
struments by which several hundred white claimants brought 
charges against the Government, either for property said to have 
been destroyed or stolen by them, or for services done the State 
in times of Indian disturbances as measures of safety, or for serv- 
ices in times of peace under Government contracts. 

At this time Mr. Charles J. Latrobe, an Englishman of great 
descriptive talent, happened to be on a tour to Chicago to see the 
wonders of an American frontier, and make notes of the same for 
publication in London.* The naiveness of his description of 
Chicago, and the transient comers to the place, both red and white, 
to attend the treaty, are too fresh to be lost, and portions of them 
are here re-produced as a truer picture of the scene than could 
now be given : 

"We found the village on our arrival crowded to excess, and we procured with 
great difficulty a small apartment, com ortless and noisy from its close prox- 
imity to others, but quite as good as we coald have hoped for. 

The Pottawatomies were encamped on all sides, — on the wide level prairie be- 
yond the scattered village, beneath the shelter of the low woods which che- 
quered them, on the side of the small river, or to the leeward of the sand hills 
near the beach of the lake. They consisted of three principal tribes with cer- 
tain adjuncts from smaller tribes. The main divisions are, the Pottawatomies 
of the Prairie and those of the Forest, and these are subdivided into distinct vil- 
lages under their several chiefs. 

The General Government of the United States, in pursuance of the scheme of 
removing the whole Indian population westward of the Mississippi, had empow- 
ered certain gentlemen to frame a Treaty with these tribes, to settle the terms 
upon which the cession of their Reservations in these States should be made 

" A preliminary council had been held with the chiefs some days before our ar- 
rival. The principal Commissioner had opened it, as we learnt, by stating 

*His Book entitled "Rambler 11 in America, was published in London, in 1835. 
It was dedicated to Washington Irving. 



400 Contents of Chicago. 

that, "as their Great Father in "Washington had heard that they wished to sell 
their land, he had sent Commissioners to treat with them. ' ' The Indians prompt- 
ly answered by their organ, " that'their Great Father in Washington must have 
seen a bad bird which had told him a lie, for that far from wishing to sell their 
land they wished to keep it.' The Commissioner, nothing daunted, replied: 
' that nevertheless, as they had come together for a Council, they must take the 
matter into consideration." He then explained to them promptly the wishes 
and intentions of their Great Father, and asked their opinion thereon. Thus 
pressed, they looked at the sky, saw a few wandering clouds, and straightway 
adjourned sine die, as the weather is not clear enough for so solemn a council. 
However, as the Treaty had been opened, provision was supplied to them by 
regular rations; and the same night they had had great rejoicings, — danced 
the war- dance, and kept the eyes and ears of all open by running and howling 
about the village. 

Such was the state of affairs on our arrival. Companies of old warriors might 
be seen sitting smoking under every bush; arguing, palavering, or " pow-wow- 
ing" with great earnestness; but there seemed no possibility of bringing them 
to another Council in a hurry. 
Meanwhile the village and its occupants presented a most motley scene. 
The fort contained within its palisades by far the most enlighted residents, in 
the little knot of officers attached to the slender garrison. The quarters here 
consequently were too confined to afford place of residence for the Government 
Commissioners, for whom and a crowd of dependents, a temporary set of plank 
huts were erected on the north side of the river. To the latter gentlemen we, 
as the only idle lookers on, were indebted for much friendly attention ; and in the 
frank and hospitable treatment we received from the inhabitants of Fort Dear- 
born, we had a foretaste of that which we subsequently met with everywhere 
under like circumstances, during our autumnal wanderings over the Frontier. 
The officers of the United States Army have perhaps less opportunities of be- 
coming refined than those of the Navy. They are often, from the moment of 
their receiving commissions, after the termination of their Cadetship at West 
Point, and at an age when good society is of the utmost consequence to the 
young and ardent, exiled for long ye u's to the posts on the Northern or West- 
ern frontier, far removed from cultivated female society, and in daily contact 
with the refuse of the human race. And this is their misfortune — not their 
fault; — but wherever we have met with them, and been thrown as strangers 
upon their good offices, we have found them the same good friends and good 
company. 

But I was going to give you an inventory of the contents of Chicago, when 
the recollection of the warm-hearted intercourse we had enjoyed with many fine 
fellows whom probably we shall neither see nor hear of again, drew me aside. 

Next in rank to the Officers and Commissioners, may be noticed certain store- 
keepers and merchants resident here; looking either to the influx of new settlers 
es abiishing themselves in the neighborhood, or those passing yet further to the 
westward, for custom and profit; not to forget the chance of extraordinary oc- 
casions like the present. Add to these a doctor or two, two or three lawyers, 
a land-agent, and five or six hotel-keepers. These may be considered as sta- 
tionary, and proprietors of the halt' a hundred clapboard houses around you. 

Then for the biids of passage, exclusive of the Pottawatomies, of whom more 
anon — and emigrants and land- speculators as numerous as the sands. You will 
find horse-dealers, andhor.-e-steaiers, — rogues of every description, white, black, 
brown and red — half-breeds, quarter-breeds, and men of no breed at all; — 
dealers in pigs, poultry, and potatoes: — men pursuing Indian claims, some for 
tracts of land, others, like our friend Snipe, (one of his stage coach companions 
on the way) for pigs which the wolves had eaten; — creditors of the tribes, or of 
particular Indians, who know that they have no chance of getting their money, 
if they do not get it from the Government agents; — sharpers of every degree; 
pedlars, grog-sellers; Indian agents and Indian traders of every description, and 
Contractors to supply the Pottawatomies with food. The little village was in an 



Contents of Chicago. 401 

uproar from morning tonight, and from night to morning: for during the hours 
ot darkness, when the housed portion of the population of Chicago strove to obtain 
repose in the crowded plank edifices of the village, the Indians howled, sang, 
wept, yelled, and whooped in their various encampments. 

I loved to stroll out towards sun-set across the river, and gaze upon the level 
horizon, stretching to the north-west over the surface of the prairie, dotted with 
innumerable objects far and near. Not far from the river lay many groups of 
tents constructed of coarse canvas, blankets, and mats, and surmounted by 
poles, supporting meat, moccasins, and rags. Their vicinity was always enliv- 
ened by various painted Indian figures, dressed in the most gaudy attire. The 
interior of the hovels generally displayed a confined area, perhaps covered with 
a few half-rotten mats or shavings, upon which men, women, children, and bag- 
gage were heaped pell-mell. 

Far and wide the grassy Prairie teemed with figures; warriors mounted or on 
foot, squaws, and horses. Here a race between three or four Indian ponies, each 
carrying a double rider, whooping and yelling like fiends. There a solitary 
horseman with a long spear, turbaned like an Arab, scouring along at full 
speed; — groups o' hobbled horses; Indian dogs and children, or a grave con- 
clave of gray chiefs seated on the grass in consultation. 

It was amusing to wind silently from group to group — here noting the raised 
knife, the sudden drunken brawl, quashed by the good-natured and even play- 
ful interference of the neighbours, there a party breaking up their encampment, 
and falling with their little train of loaded ponies, and wolfish dogs, into the 
deep black narrow trail running to the north. You peep into a wigwam, and 
see a domestic feud; the chief sitting in dogged silence on the mat, while the 
women, of which there were commonly two or three in every dwelling, and who 
appeared every evening even more elevated with the fumes of whiskey than the 
males, read him a lecture. From another tent a constant voice of wrangling 
and weeping would proceed, when suddenly an offended fair one would draw 
the mat aside, and taking a youth standing without by the hand, lead him 
apart, and sitting down on the grass, setup the most indescribable whine as she 
told her grief. Then forward comes an Indian, staggering with his chum from 
a debauch; he is met by his squaw, with her child dangling in a fold of her 
blanket behind, and the sobbing and weeping which accompanies her whining 
appeal to him, as she hangs to his hand, would melt your heart, if you did not 
see that she was quite as tipsy as himself. 

Here sitting apart and solitary, an Indian expends the exuberance of his intoxi- 
cated spirits in the most ludicrous singing and gesticulation; and there squat a 
circle of unruly topers indulging themselves in the most unphilosophic and ex- 
cessive peals of laughter. 

It is a grievous thing that Government is not strong-handed enough to put a 
stop to the shameful and scandalous sale of whiskey to those poor miserable 
wretches. But here lie casks of it for sale under the very eye of the Commis- 
sioners, met together for purposes, which demand that sobriety should be main- 
tained, were it only that no one should be able to lay at their door an accusation 
of unfair dealing, and of having taken advantage of the helpless Indian in a bar- 
gain, whereby the people of the United States were to be so greatly the gainers. 

And such was the staie of things day by clay. However anxious I and others 
might be to exculpate the United States Government from the charge of cold 
and selfish policy toward the remnant of the Indian tribes, and from that of 
resorting to unworthy and diabolical means in attaining possession of their 
lands, — as long as it can be said with truth, that drunkenness was not guarded 
against, and that the means were furnished at the very time of the Treaty, and 
under the very nose of the Commissioners, — how can it be expected but a stigma 
will attend every transactien of this kind. The sin may lie at the door of the 
individuals more immediately in contact with them; but for the character of the 
people as a nation, it should be guarded against, beyond a possibility of trans- 
gression. Who will believe that any act, however formally executed by the 
chiefs, is valid, as long as it is known that whiskey was one of the parties to the 
Treaty. 



402 Contents of Chicago. 

1 But how sped the Treaty? 1 you will ask. 

Day after day passed. It was in vain that the signal-gun from the fort gave 
notice of an assemblage of chiefs at the council fire. Reasons were always found 
for its delay. One day an influential chief was not in the way; another, the sky 
looked cloudy, and the Indian never performs an important business except the 
sky be clear. At length, on the 21st of September, the Pottawatomies resolved 
to meet the Commissioners. We were politely invited to be present. 

The council-fire was lighted under a spacious open shed on the green meadow, 
on the opposite side of the river from that on which the Fort stood. From the 
difficulty of getting all to-gether, it was late in the afternoon when they assem- 
bled. There might be twenty or thirty chiefs present, seated at the lower end 
of the enclosure, while the Commissioners, Interpreters, &c. were at the upper. 
The palaver was opened by the principal Commissioner. He requested to know 
why he and his colleagues were called to the council? An old warrior arose, 
and in short sentences, generally of five syllables, delivered with a monotonous 
intonation, and rapid utterance, gave answer. His gesticulation wasjappropriate 
but rather violent. Rice, the half- breed Interpreter, explained the signification 
from time to time to the audience; and it was seen that the old chief, who had 
got his lesson, answered one question by proposing another, the sum and sub- 
stance of his oration being — ' that the assembled chiefs wished to know what 
was the object of their Great Father at Washington in calling his Red Children 
together at Chicago.' 

This was amusing enough after the full explanation given a week before at 
the opening session; and particularly when it was recollected that they had 
feasted sumptuously during the interval at the expense of their Great Father, 
was not making very encouraging progress. A young chief rose and;spoke ve- 
hemently to the same purpose. Hereupon the Commissioner made them a for- 
cible Jacksonian discourse, wherein a good deal which was akin to threat, was 
mingled with exhortations not to play with their Great Father, but to come to an 
early determination, whether they would or would not sell and exchange their 
territory; and this done, the council was dissolved. One s or two tipsy old chiefs 
raised an occasional disturbance, else matters were conducted with due gravity. 

The relative positions of the Commissioner and the whites before the Council- 
fire, and that of the Red Children of the Forest and Prairie, were to me striking- 
ly impressive. The glorions light of the setting sun streaming in under the 
low roof of the Council-House, fell full on the contenances of the former as they 
faced the West — while the pale light of the East, hardly lighted up the dark 
and painted lineaments of the poor Indians, whose souls evidently clave to their 
birth-right in that quarter. Even though convinced of the necessity of their re- 
moval, my heart bled for them in their desolation and decline. Ignorant and 
degraded as they may have been in their original state, their degradation is now 
ten-fold, after years of intercourse with the whites; and their speedy disappear- 
ance from the earth appears as certain as though it were already sealed and 
accomplished. 

Your own reflection will lead you to form the conclusion, and it will be a just 
one, — that even if he had the will, the power would be wanting, for the Indian 
to keep his territory; and that the business of arranging the terms of an Indian 
Treaty, whatever it might have been two hundred years. ago, while the Indian 
tribes had not, as now. thrown aside the rude but vigorous intellectual charac- 
ter which distinguished many among them, now lies chiefly between the various 
traders, agents, creditors, and half-breeds of the tribes, on whom custom and 
necessity have made the degraded chiefs dependent, and the Government 
Agents. When the former have seen matters so far arranged their self-interest 
and various schemes and claims are likely to be fulfilled and allowed to their 
hearts' content, — the silent acquiescence of the Indian follows of course; and 
till this is the case, the Treaty can never be amicably effected. In fine, before 
we quitted Chicago on the 25th, three or four days latter.the Treaty with the 
Pottawatomies was concluded, — the Commissioners putting their hands, and 
the assembled chiefs their paws, to the same. 

By it, an apparently advantageous 'swop ' was made for both parties." 



Terms of the Treaty. 403 

By the terms of this treaty the three tribes ceded to the 
United States the entire remainder of their lands in Illinois that 
had not already been sold. The ceded tract laid between the 
Rock River and Lake Michigan, embracing the entire lake shore 
north of Chicago, and all the lands intervening between the canal 
cession of 1816 and the Sac and Fox and Winnebago cessions 
between the Rock and Mississippi rivers of 1830 and 1832. 

The consideration for the relinquishment of this land was first 
live million acres granted to them, situated on the east bank of 
the Missouri river south of the Boyer river, to which they were to 
be transported at the expense of the government as soon as practi- 
cable, and maintained in their new home for one year. One hun- 
dred thousand dollars was to be paid by the United States to sat- 
isfy certain claimants for reservations, and to indemnify the 
Chippewas for certain lands in Michigan, ceded to the United 
States by the Menomonees, to which they laid an equal claim. 
One hundred and fifty thousand dollars to satisfy private claims 
made against the three tribes; an annuity of fourteen thousand 
dollars per year for twenty years; one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars to be applied to the erection of mills, farming tools and 
other improvements in their new home. Seventy thousand dol- 
lars to support the means of education among them, and lastly, 
four hundred dollars per annum was to be added to the annuity 
of Billy Caldwell, three hundred to that of Alexander Robinson, 
and two hundred each to the annuity of Joseph LaFromboise and 
Shabonee. 

GL B. Porter, Th. J. V. Owen, and William Weatherford, in 
behalf of the United States, negotiated this treaty with the Pot- 
tawattomas, Chippewas, and Ottawas. It bears date of Chicago, 
September 26, 1833. It was the last great Indian council at this 
place, around which the red men had lingered in great numbers 
much longer after being settled by the whites than around other 
frontier settlements. 

The reason of this was obvious; Chicago, after over one hundred 
years of transient French occupation, first grew into importance 
as an English settlement through Indian trade. Moreover, 
many of its first settlers were men bred on the frontiers and felt 
no repugnance towards the Indians, but on the contrary not a 
few felt a friendship for them, strengthened by years of compan- 
ionship in the fascinating sports of border life, which not only 
level social distinctions, but accept a good fellowship through a 
rough exterior intolerable to the uninitiated civilian. Notwith- 
standing the apparent degradation of the Indian, even after be- 
ing brutalized by bad whisky, many of them could make nice 
discriminations in issues where natural rights were at stake, as 
our government agents found in their councils. They well knew 



404 Removal of the Indians. 

that they were the instruments by which many unjust claims 
were brought against the government; but of this they said 
nothing, lest their own rights might be compromised by such an 
exposure. 

The amount of goods dispensed to them at Chicago to fulfill 
treaty stipulations was often very large, and in order to distrib- 
ute them equitably, men were chosen for the service whose per 7 
sonal acquaintance with the Indians would enable them to do it 
in the most satisfactory manner. On these occasions the huge 
piles of goods, consisting largely of Indian blankets, were dis- 
pensed by piece-meal to the different Indian families according 
to their necessities, but sometimes a discarded Indian lassie, 
whose place had been substituted by a white wife, came in for 
an extra share of finery as an offset to lacerated affections. 

Two years elapsed after the Indians had sold out their interest 
in the country before they were removed. This was effected by 
Colonel J. B. F. Russell, whose widow is still living in Chicago. 
This lady, who is descended from the Peyton s, of Virginia, has 
in her possession autograph letters of Washington and other 
fathers of our country, besides many valuable relics of early 
Chicago, among which is the journal kept by her husband du- 
ring his public service. To her courtesy the writer is indebted 
for much valuable information, among which are the following 
items from Mr. Russell's journal : 

" The first party of Indians left Chicago, Sept. 21, 1835, with the Chiefs, Rob- 
inson, Caldwell, and La Framboise, and proceeded to their place of rendezvous, 
on the Desplaines, 12 miles from Chicago, a place of meeting usual on such oc- 
casions. I met them in council and presented to them the objects of the meet- 
ing and the views of the government relative to their speedy removal to their 
new country. They wished to defer answering what I had said to them for two 
days, to which I consented. Sunday, 28th. Provided teams and transporta- 
tion for the removal of the Indians." The journal next proceeds to detail the 
particulars of his thankless toil in satisfying the real and whimsical necessities 
of his captious charge, who honored him with the appelation of Father, and 
vexed him with complaints continually. _ Their first stopping place was Skunk 
River, in Iowa. Patogashah started with his band to winter at this place, 
which was the first party to start independent of government assistance. Rob- 
inson had command of a separate party, Caldwell another, Wabansie another, 
and Holliday another, and Robert Kinzie and Mr. Kerchival assisted Mr. Rus- 
sell in superintending the whole. 

Fort Des Moines, on the Mississippi river, lay on their route 
to Fort Leavenworth, which was their destination, on the Mis- 
souri river, from whence they were to draw their supplies, as 
stipulated by the government at the treaty, as they settled them- 
selves in their new home adjacent. The whole tribe were not 
removed to their new home till the next year, 1836, when the 
last remnant of them took their leave of the country around the 
head of Lake Michigan, which they had occupied for two centu- 
ries, as shown in foregoing pages. 



Final Destination of the Pottawatomies. 405 

Two years after their settlement near Fort Leavenworth, owing 
to feelings of hostility which the frontier settlers felt towards 
them, they were removed to Council Bluffs, from whence, after 
remaining a few years, they were removed to where they now 
live, diminished in numbers from 5,000, at the time they were 
removed from Chicago, to less than half that number."* 

Mr. Russell's success in removing them was the result of his 
frontier military experiences on the borders of Maine, together 
with his habits of activity, tempered with patience. He deserves 
mention among the early settlers of Chicago, because his name 
is interwoven with its history. He was born in Boston in 1800, 
well descended from Revolutionary stock, his father being a pat- 
riot editor, and his uncle (Major Ben. Russell), was stationed at 
West Point at the time of Arnold's treason. Mr. Russell's first 
arrival at Chicago was July 21st, 1832, he having been ordered 
to join General Scott here. His wife did not come to the place 
till the summer of 1835, when, in company of General Cass and 
his two daughters she arrived, and they were guests at the Sa- 
gaunash. They were from this time permanent residents of Chi- 
cago, well known by all the early settlers. Mr. Russell's death 
took place Jan. 3d, 1861. His remains rest at Rose Hill. 

* The report from the office of Indian affairs in Kansas, Sept. 1st, 1878, says : 
The Pottawattomies are advancing in education, morality, Christianity, and self- 
support. A majority of them have erected substantial houses, planted fruit 
trees, and otherwise beautified their surroundings. The average attendance at 
a school which the government provides for them is 29, from an enrollment of 
44. The school buildings are well supplied with faculties for boarding and lodg- 
ing the pupils, and also for teaching the females household duties. Their reser- 
vation contains 77,357 acres of land in Jackson county. Their wealth in indi- 
vidual property amounts to $241,650. On their farms they have reapers, mow- 
ers, planters, cultivators, and other agricultural machinery, all of the most 
modern patterns. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The Beaubiens — Pioneer Hotel — Ingenious Device for Lodg- 
ings — The Pioneer Newspaper — Its Subscription List — 
Wolff's Point — Its Inhabitants — Alexander Robinson — His 
Character — His Wonderful Age — Shabonee — His Character 
— Chicago in 1834 — Chicago in 1835 — Turning the First 
Sod for the Canal — Celebration of the Event — Its Conse- 
quences — The Last Records of Chicago as a Town — List oj 
Old Settlers. 

Among the pioneers of Chicago the Beaubiens deserve a place, 
for without them a chasm would be left unabridged between the 
old French and Indian regime, and the Anglo American of to- 
day. 

In the year 1817, Conant & Mack, a Detroit Fur Company, 

established a house at Lee's Place on the Chicago river, South 

Branch, under the general superintendence of Mr. John Crafts, as 

already stated in a previous chapter, and Mr. John Baptiste Beau- 

bien was in his service as local agent, which was the means of 

bringing him to the place to settle. A few months later the 

American Fur Company bought out the house established at Lee's 

place and established one at Chicago, at the same time imposing 

upon Mr. Crafts the entire duties of the Chicago house, which of 

course displaced Mr. Beaubien.* He still remained at the place, 

having purchased of Mr. Dean, an army contractor, the house 

and enclosure containing a garden and field adjacent to the fort, 

known as the Dean house, for one thousand dollars. 

" Colonel Beaubien built another house upon this place, and continued the oc- 
cupant of it till 1836. In 1823 the factory :houses adjoining-, or on the same 
premises, were sold by order of the Secrerary of the Treasury, to Win. Whiting-, 
who sold the same to the American Fur Company, and of whom Col. Beaubien 
purchased the buildings of the factory for the sum of five hundred dollars. Mr. 
Beaubien by these purchases became the owner and occupant of all the prem- 
ises of the so called Reservation, outside of the fort, and claimant to the lands 
not covered by the buildings of the government. Upon these facts Mr. Beaubien 
set up his claim as a pre-emptioner to the south west fractional quarter of sec- 
tion ten, township thirty-nine north, range fourteen east, as being the sole oc- 
cupant and in actual possession on the 9th of May, 1830, the date of the pre- 
emption law. He therefore applied on the 7th of May, 1831, to the land office 

*Gurdon S. Hubbard. 

(406) 



The Beauliens. 407 

at Palestine, for a pre-emption, which was rejected ; though on the same day 
a pre-emption was granted to Robert A. Kinzie, for the north fractional quarter 
of the same section, which was the part occupied by the Kinzie family, since de- 
fined as Kinzie's addition to Chicago. He applied again in 1834 to the land 
office at Danville for a pre-emption, and was again refused. On the 28th cf 
May, 1835, Col. Beaubien applied to the land office in Chicago, — the office in the 
meantime having been established here — and having proved to the satisfaction 
of the Register and Receiver that he was entitled to pre-emption, he entered the 
same and received his certificate therefor. The lands had been retained and his 
applications resisted on the ground of the tract being claimed by the United 
States for military purposes. The land had been surveyed by government in 
1821, and in 1824, at the instance of the Indian Aarent ; the Secretary of War 
requested the Commissioner of the General Land Office to reserve this land for 
the accommodation and protection of the property of the Indian Agency ; and 
the Commissioner did inform the Secretary that he had reserved it from sale for 
military purposes. Beaubien had received the registrar's certificate — but his 
title to the propery was resisted, and the case traversed the courts to the Su- 

Ereme Bench of the United States, and the land was finally held by the United 
tates, and was surveyed into lots and sold by order of the President, in 1839. 
Mi - . Beaubien was allowed as a special favor, some of the lots which had been 
covered by his homestead, which has proved a fortune equal to the original 
expectation of the whole tract of the Reservation. 

Within a short time he has made some changes in his estate in Chicago, and 
has removed with his family to his farm on the Des Plaines, near the reservation 
of Alexander Robinson, the late chief of the United Tribes of the Pottawato- 
mies, Ottawas and Chippewas. 1 ' — Zebina Eastmans History of Chicago, pub- 
lished in the Chicago Magazine, May, 1857. 

About this tirae he married a half breed, named Josette La- 
Froniboise, who had been in the employ of John Kinzie previous 
to the massacre. During this time her parents lived in a log 
house at the head of the south branch of •the Chicago river, at 
which place she took refuge after the massacre and remained till 
her marriage, the ceremony being performed by Father Kechere. 
Her father, J. B. LaFromboise, was a man;of education. His wife, 
an Ottawa girl, the mother of Josette, soon learned to read and 
write, and taught an Indian school at Chicago.* A son of this 
union, Alexander Beaubien, is now a resident of Chicago, from 
whom the facts have been learned. Medard B. Beaubien, an 
older son, cast his lot with the Indians when they were removed 
from Chicago, and is now with them at Silver Lake, Kansas. 
There are numerous other children and descendents of the Beau- 
biens living amongst us. The interest of Mr. J. B. Beaubien being 
attached to Chicago, he induced his brother Mark to come from 
Michigan, their original residence, who arrived at the town in 
1826. Soon after his arrival he bought a small log house which 
John Kinzie had built, about at the present corner of Lake and 
Market streets, for one hundred dollars. Here he opened a tavern, 
if his hut deserved such a name. The manner in which he enter- 
tained his guests, according to his own statement when interview- 
ed by a Times reporter in 1876, affords a specimen of ingenious 

* Schoolcraft's thirty years. 



408 The Kinzies. 

audacity which could only be condoned by that brimming exu- 
berance of jolity and good fellowship that ever abided around him 
and disarmed criticism. Says this incarnation of comedy: 

" I had no ped, but when traveler come for lodging, I give him planket to cover 
himself up in on de floor, and tell him to look out, for Ingun steal it. Den when 
he gits to sleep I take de planket way carefully an give it to noder man and tell 
him same, so I always have peds for all dat want em. 

This device was certainly not the result of any niggardly disposi- 
tion on his part; but a necessary expedient by which no guest 
should be rejected from his entertainment. From this small be- 
ginning he rose in respectability, until in 1831 he enlarged his 
tavern to a two story building with green blinds, and in honor of 
Billy Caldwell, whose Indian name was Sagaunash, thus named 
the house. 

He is the father of twenty- three children, sixteen by his first wife, 
w T hom he married at Detroit, Michigan, and seven by his second. 
His present home is Newark, Illinois, where he is enjoying a 
green old age, not} T et forsaken by that excess of good humor that 
lias carried him so easily through a life, that without it, must have 
been full of perplexity. A single look at the ingenious old man 
might for the moment lift the burden from a sorrowing heart.* 

Equally allied to what may with propriety be called the medie- 
val period of Chicago's history, is Mr. Robert Kinzie, (younger 
brother of John H). Both were here at the time of the massacre, 
and rescued with their father, John Kinzie, and returned to the 
place in 1816, since which time Chicago has been their home the 
most of their time till their deaths. That of John H. has already 
been noticed. Robert survived him till December 13th, 1873, 
when he passed away and was buried in Graceland. His wife is 
still living in Chicago. Her maiden name was Gwinthlean H. 
Whistler. Her grandfather was the same who built Fort Dear- 
born in 1803. She was born at Fort Howard, and spent her 
infantile years in that w T ild frontier till eleven years old, when 
she went with her father to Fort Niagara, from which place, after 
a three years' residence, he came to Chicago to take command of 
Ft. Dearborn, she accompanying him. Here she married Mr. R. 
Kinzie in 1834. Helen M. and Maria H., daughters of John 
Kinzie were born in Chicago, the former in 1805 and the latter in 
1807. Both were rescued from the massacre with their older 
brothers, John H. and Robert. Maria II. became the wife of 
General David Hunter. Both she and her husband are now liv- 
ing in Washington. 

Volumes could be written on the experiences of these male and 

*The writer called on him when he lived near Naperville, in 1860. His old 
fashioned French furniture seemed to still link him back to his own early age. 



The First Newspaper. 409 

female pioneers. It is refreshing to be in their presence and 
commune with them on the age that has just preceded the one 
in which we live. The} 7 were educated in a school that tran- 
scended the average solicitudes of our day in utilitarian condi- 
tions. The problem with them how they were to secure the 
positive wants of the mind and body, was ever foremost of that 
as to how they should obtain the fictitious ones; hence their 
efforts were not wasted in the pursuit of the unattainable, for the 
destined goal of him who seeks the fulfillment of capricious and 
selfish purposes only, vanishes in the distance as age begins to 
shorten the step and check the force of his career; and he dies 
under the painful conviction that he has lived in vain. The an- 
tidote to this last despair is found in an active life, with our 
mental joints (if the metaphor is admissible) lubricated with that 
kind of magnanimity that pioneer life is almost sure to beget, 
and which is by no means a lost art, even in this age of sharp 
rivalship, though it is not too much to say that newly settled 
countries are more favorable to its growth. 

A new era now opens upon Chicago, one destined to spread 
her fame throughout the world, and to infuse into newspaper 
literature that essential manifesto of j)rogress which the elastic 
spirits of new countries are sure to call into being. To say less 
than this would not do full justice to Chicago journalism. 

On the 26th of November, 1833, the first sheet appeared under 
the title of The Chicago Democrat, edited and published by 
John Calhoun, corner of LaSalle and South Water streets. A 
well written editorial appears in the first number, setting forth 
the policy of the paper with temperate and modest pretensions 
withal, evincing a masterly skill in editorial capability which 
does honor to his army of successors. The same number con- 
gratulates the Chicagoans on the success of Mr. Owen at the 
treaty just negotiated, in overcoming the objections of the Indi- 
ans to removing to their new home in Missouri, and equally con- 
gratulates the Indians on the prospect of soon getting out of the 
reach of the depradations of " unprincipled civilized borderers." 
Liberal quotations from literary journals, poetry, as good as the 
average newspaper musings, wit and wisdom, and a moderate 
amount of advertisements, fill up the six column sheet creditably. 

The third number advertises an English and classical academy, 
corner of. Water and Franklin streets, which must have been the 
first of its kind in Chicago. In the issue of June 11th, 1834, is 
a quotation from Cobbett, the English historian and essayist, 
evidently intended as a trite description of Chicago young girls: 

"The girls of America" (says this Catholic Father), "are beautiful and 
unaffected ; perfectly frank, and at the same time perfectly modest; but when 



410 



Subscription List. 



you make them an offer of your hand, be prepared to give it, for wait they will 
not. In England we frequently hear of courtships of a quarter of a century. 
In that anti-Malthusian country a quarter of a year is deemed to be rather 
lengthy." 

June 11th, 1S34, the following appears, which is reproduced in 

these pages to show the progress of emigration and the means of 

travel : 

Hardly a vessel arrives that is not crowded with emigrants, and the stage 
that now runs twice a week from the East is thronged with travelers.^ The 
steamboat Pioneer, which now performs her regular trips to St. Joseph, is also 
a great accommodation to the traveling community. Loaded teams and cov- 
ered wagons, laden with families and goods, are daily arriving and settling 
upon the country back. 

June 28th the editor congratulates Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 
prospect of a railroad to connect with the Miami canal. 

The Illinois and Michigan canal is frequently commented on, 
not only as essential to the success of Chicago, but as a national 
necessity. 

The subscription list of the paper is still preserved, and is 
copied here as a valuable record of the business men of Chicago 
at that day, for nearly all took the paper. 



— City subscription 

A. Lloyd, 

C. & I. Harmon, 
Chester Ingersoll, 
Dr. W. Clark, 
John Miller, 
Samuel Brown, 
Newberry <fc Dole, 
G. Kercheval, 
James Kinzie, 
E. A. Rider. 
H. B. Clark,' 
Robert Kinzie, 
P. J. Lewis, 
P. F. W. Peck, 
James H. Mu f.rd, 
John Wright, 
Alanson Sweet, 
R. M. Sweet, 
Philo Carpenter, 
G. Spring, 
John H. Boyer, 
Star Foot, 
M. B. Beaubien, 
T. J. V". Owen, 
W. H. Brown, 

B. Jones, 
I. Allen, 

J. K. Botsford, 
J. B. Tuttle, 
Col. R. I. Hamilton, 
Charles Wisencrafb, 
E. S. Thrall, 



book of Chicago Democrat, 
J. Dean Caton, 
Eli B. Williams, 
Samuel Way man, 
Archibald Clybourn, 
Augustus Rugsby, 
Silas B. Cobb, 
Abel Breed, 
E. W. Haddock, 
Irad Hill, 
Albert Forbes, 
Doct. Maxwell, 
Hiram Hugenin, 
A. Merrill, 
James Herrington, 
George N. Powell, 
Jonathan Hix, 
Joseph A. Barnes, 
Mancel Talcott, 
Alanson Filer, 
Douglas Sloan, 
A. Woodruff, 
Daniel Elton, 
Luther Hatch, 
George W. Snow, 
P. S. Updyke, 
John L. Sergerts, 
John Watkins, 
Mathias Mason, 
John Wellmaker, 
I. Solomon, 
N. F. Hurd, 
Jiimes Mitchell, 



dated November, 1833. 
Charles Viana, 
Lt. L. T. Jamieson, 
Librarian, Ft. Dearborn. 

E. Wentworih, 
George Walker, 
Stephen E. Downer, 
Abel E. Carpenter, 
John B. Beaubien, 
Parker M. Cole, 

J. R. Brown, 
Solomon Lincoln, 

F. Forbes, 
Rufus Brown, 

Rev. Jeremiah Porter, 

T. C. Sproat, 

Peter Warden, 

Philip Scott, 

E. W. Casey, 

J. L. Thompson, 

H. T. Harding, 

E. L. Kimberly, 

P. Pruyn, 

Peter Cohen, 

Brewster, Hogan & Co. 

C. H. Chapman, 

Piatt Thorn, 

J, P. Brady, 

Jacob G. Patterson, 

George Hertington, 

Alexander N. Fullerton, 

M. K. Brown, 

Silas W. Sherman, 



Early Job Printing. 



411 



Nelson R. Norton, 
Benjamin Hall, 
N. Carpenter, 
Hiram Lumbard, 
Samuel Harmon, 
J. W. Reed, 
Walter Kimball, 
William Taylor, 
H. Barnes, 
E. Brown, 
Ahisa Hubbard, 
R. E. Herrick, 
Thomas Hoyt, 
Edward E. Hunter, 
John Noble, 
Ford Freeman, 
Hiram Pease, 



Oliver Losier, 
John Marshall, 
S. Ellis, 
Isaac Harmon, 
C. B. Dodson, 
L. Barnes, 
Richard Steele, 
Henry Hopkins, 
Elijah Clark, 
William Taylor, 
Mark Beaubien. 
John H. Eenzie, 
C. H. Chapman, 
Paul Burdeck, 
George Bickerdike, 
Aug*. Penoyer, 
Jones & King-. 



Robert Williston, 
John Davis, 
H. C. West, 
Byron Gurin, 
John T. Temple,. 
William Cooley, 
Rathbone Sani< rd, 
Orsemus Morrison, 
James Walker, 
Gilbert Carpenter, 
Benjamin Briggs, 
W. Vanderberg, 
Benjamin F. Barker, 
Samuel Brown, 
H. I. Cleveland, 
S. C. Gage, 
B. Caldwell, 



The Account Book which Mr. Calhoun kept is equally valua- 
ble as a memento of the village days of Chicago. Among the 
charges for job printing, ball tickets, are no inconsiderable item. 

Government blanks for the land office* were a good source of 
income, for which Mr. Calhoun may thank his young wife, not 
only for her patient industry in helping to execute the jobs, but 
for her inventive genius in improvising a way to press the 
printed sheets to give them the necessary finish after being 
printed. For the want of a lever press to do this Mrs. Calhoun 
suggested a flat-iron, and offered to iron every sheet in a run of 
3,000, which she did, and turned out the job in immaculate 
smoothness. Besides assisting her husband by this laborious 
undertaking, she helped him in correcting his proof, and in the 
general executive labors of the office. 

By the request of her husband she preserves during her life- 
time the entire file of his papers, and I trust that I betray no 
confidence by stating that, from my conversation with her as to 
their final disposition, I infer that she will bequeath them to the 
Chicago Historical Society. 

The last issue of his paper bears date of November 16th, 1836, 
two days before which time by contract it was sold to Horatio 
Hill, a present resident of Chicago, and brother of Isaac Hill, of 
]STew Hampshire, its hard money Governor who said, in order to 
give point to his issue with the Whig party, that a bank of dirt 
was the best bank, and a plow-share the best share in it.f Mr. 
Hill immediately transferred his contract to Mr. John Went- 



*The Govt. Land Office was opened June 1st, 1835, under charge of Col. E. D. 
Taylor and James Whitlock. 

fThis pithy similitude is here reproduced from childish memory, when the 
father of the writer read Mr. Hill's message to a select coterie of listeners 
among whom he was an attentive one. 



412 Wolf's Point. 

worth, who then came to Chicago and began his eventful career 
where Mr. Calhoun left off as a journalist. The paper was con- 
tinued under the same name by Mr. Wentworth, of which more 
will be said in its appropriate place. 

For more than twelve years previous to this time, the fork of 
the river then known by the name of Wolff's Point (so named 
after an Indian chief) was the centre of Chicago attractions. 
Here stood the old Miller house, on the north side, erected by 
Alexander Robinson* in 1820. To him it was a palace, where he 
entertained not only his Indian friends, but such white persons as 
wished to secure Indian trade by the distribution of presents 
among them. Mr. Robinson was early in the employ of Conant 
and Mack as an Indian trader on Fox river, and afterwards em- 
ployed in the same service by Mr. Lawton, on the Desplaines. 
He spoke both the English and Pottawatomie languages with 
ease, and on conventional occasions acted as interpreter. 

It is not known at what time he disposed of his house at the 
fork, but it is known that in 1832 Mr. Samuel Miller kept tavern 
here — the same who had married Elizabeth Kinzie, the third child 
of John Kinzie, by Margaret, his first wife. She died at this 
house in August, 1832. The original building was made of logs, 
but afterwards covered with weather-boards, to give it the appear- 
ance of a frame house. But even at this early day the whole 
structure was in a state of decay, especially the roof, as will be 
seen by the accompanying picture. It had before this date served 
as church, school house and private residence. 

On the west bank of the river, at the immediate junction of 
the two branches, was a tavern kept by Elijah Wentworth in 
1833. This was at the time the model hotel of the town. 

Robert A. Kinzie had a store, in 1832, where the MenashaWood- 
en Ware Co. now is, on the west bank of the river. Thomas Cook 
then lived immediatly west of the Green Tree, following the oc- 
cupation of teamster. He is still living at his home, in Lyons. 
The Green Tree is still standing, being the northeast corner of 
Lake and Canal streets. It was built by John H. Kinzie, and is 
the oldest building in the city at the present day. For many 
years it has been known as the Lake Street House, but it is now 
a common saloon and private dwelling. Immediately east of this 
place James Kinzie kept a store in 1835, where he drove a thriv- 
ing trade with Indians and new comers. Alexander Robinson's 

*Mr. Robinson's father was a Canadian voyag-cur, of Scottish descent, in the 
employ of a far company, and his mother a Pottawatomie woman. He was 
bred to his father's occupation, and became a useful man in his sphere, as well 
as a true friend to the Indians, for which cause he rose to the position of princi- 
pal chief of the Pottawatomies, and remained such till their removal, in 1835. 



Alexander Robinson. 413 

second residence was situated between Lake and Randolph streets, 
on the west side. His place was generally lively with Indians, 
in the declining glories of their latter days in Chicago. Groups 
of blanketed squaws, with their pappooses slung on their backs, 
in birch bark pockets, and an equal number of braves, dedaubed 
with paint and ornamented with feathers, hung around his doors 
in listless dalliance, while among them a few white drummers 
might sometimes be seen distributing free whiskey to secure 
their trade. A few hours' boisterous yelling and a war-dance 
would wind up the scene, and with the small hours of morn- 
ing tranquility would be restored. 

It may appear strange to some that a man of Mr. Robinson's 
integrity and reputation for excellence in those qualifications 
which make up the character of the model citizen, should inter- 
mingle and associate with the low class of Indians that came and 
went freely to and from his house, and for this appar nt incon- 
sistency history ought to make an apology in his behalf; not on 
his individual account, but because lie was one of but a small 
number left who represented the once lofty virtues of his race in 
their purer and happier days, and who, after a hundred and fifty 
years' occupation of Chicago in company with the French, were 
now taking their leave forever of this place so dear to them. 

" A man's a man for a 1 that," 
was a sentiment of which Robinson felt the true force. Iso one 
could be too low to become a recipient of his favor, and no one 
so high in his estimation as to be unapproachable through the 
common forms of respect. Being half Indian, and having a wife 
of the same race, he was shut out from civilized society socially, 
and to have cut loose from the Indians would have left liim with- 
out inflence, and alone in the world. This same principle is not 
unfrequently seen now-a-days when a partisan politician in de- 
fense of some dogma essential to secure public spoils, receives on 
terms of social equality persons far beneath his station, and Rob- 
inson was more justifiable than these, because his motive was not a 
selfish one, but the result of an inevitable destiny. In 1833 Mr. 
Philo Carpenter presented the temperance pledge to him (the 
first, says Mr. Carpenter to the writer, that was ever drawn up in 
Chicago). After a moment's reflection he signed it, at the same 
time proving the sincerity of his resolution by drawing a flask of 
whisky from his pocket and emptying its contents on the ground. 
It is not known how long he held his resolution, but lie never 
was a drunkard. 

The removal of his tribe was a turning point in his life. The 
issue now came directly to him which to choose — an Indian or a 
civilized life. After weighing the matter, in consideration of his 



414 Alexander Robinson. 

children's best good, lie chose the latter, not without painful emo- 
tions on his part, and sore disappointment on the part of his 
tribe. Soon after their removal he moved to his reservation on 
the Desplaines river, and became a farmer highly esteemed by 
all who knew him. His wife was equally exemplary in her walk 
in life, and afforded one of the many proofs that the pure Indian 
is possessed of high virtues when circumstances favor their 
growth, which is all that can be said of any one. His daughter 
Cynthia, the wife of Mr. Oooney, is now a resident of Chicago, 
to which place the family recently came, tor the laudable purpose 
of educating their children. From her the writer has learned 
that her father came to Chicago in 1806, and henceforward made 
it his home till he retired to his reservation on the Desplaines. 
He was not present at the massacre of IS 12, but on hearing of it 
returned in time to unite with the Sauganash and Black Par- 
tridge to save the lives of the prisoners, and when his own life 
was threatened for his courageous interposition to this end. Says 
his daughter: "He told the would-be assassins that they might 
destroy the white blood in him, but must not touch the Indian" 
This dilemma, with its complex issue, helped to turn the scale in 
favor of the prisoners, and when the issue was settled, he took 
Mr. and Mrs. Helm under his charge and rowed them in his ca- 
noe around the extremity of Lake Michigan and along its eastern 
shore to Mackinaw. He lived to see the great fire of 1871, and 
as he beheld its desolations from Lake street bridge, he gave a 
lusty whoop, and exclaimed that he once more saw the open prai- 
rie there as in the old days of his own prime. He died the next 
year, April 19th, 1872, at the advanced age of 110 years, accord- 
ing to Robert Kinzie's estimate, who says that he was born be- 
fore his father, John Kenzie. Some others set his age at 105, 
but all agree as to his wonderful longevity; and no one chal- 
lenges his record for uprightness, hospitality and benevolence. 

An equally noble specimen of an upright man was Shabonee, 
whose eulogy has been told by Col. Gurdon S. Hubbard, in a 
pamphlet published by the Chicago Historical Society. * 

In addition to Mr. Hubbard's voucher as to the integrity of 
Shabonee, the following bit of his history from Chicago's well 
known citizen, ¥m. Hickling, Esq., is only a just tribute to the 

*" I cannot close,' 1 says Mr. Hubbard, " Without adding my testimony to 
that of Mr. Hicklings, regarding the character and services of that noble Indian 
Chief, Shabonee. f 

From my first acquaintance with him, which began in the fall of 1818, to his 
death I was impressed with the nobleness of his character. Physically he was 
as fine a specimen of a man as I ever saw; tall, well proportioned, strong and 
fHis name has been spelled in two ways by his biographers. 



Shabonee. 415 

memory of him whose remains now honor our soil, and whose 
life-size portrait is treasured in grateful memory by the Chicago 
Historial society. * 

The same treaty which gave to Caldwell, Kobinson and others 
of our Indians and half-breeds, their reservations of land, also 
gave two sections to Shabonee. This he desired to be so located 
that it would include his old home and council-house in the 
grove before mentioned. By direction of Major Langham, then 
Surve}<or-General of Illinois and Missouri, a survey and plat of 
the reservation was made by a Deputy Surveyor, and Shabonee 
fondly hoped that the house which he and his family had occu- 
pied for so many years was secured to him and them forever. I 
believe that in all the other reservations of land granted by the 
aforementioned treaty, that all the parties thereto, having such 
reservations, enjoyed them in fee, and only required the consent 
of, and signature of the President of the United States, in order 
to pass a good title to parties purchasing such reserved lands. 
"Why Shabonee's case should differ from all the rest I could never 
determine. At any rate, when the survey of the public lands 
lying north of the old Indian boundary line was ordered by the 
Land Department to be made, the Deputy Surveyor had instruc- 
tions to ignore the previous survey of the reservations, and 
include the lands thereon contained in the regular section lines of 
the United States survey, and during the absence of poor old 
Shabonee and his family in Kansas, these lands w T ere sold by pub- 
active, with a face expressing" great strength of mind and goodness of heart. 
Had he been favored with the advantages of education, he might have com- 
manded a high position among the men of his day. He was remarkable for his 
integrity, of a generous and forgiving nature, always hospitable, and until his 
return from the west, a strictly temperate man, not only abstaining himself 
from all intoxicating liquors, but influencing his people to do the same. He 
was ever a friend to the white settlers, and should be held by them in grateful 
remembrance. He had an uncommonly retentive memory, and a perfect knowl- 
edge of this western country. He would readily draw on the sand or a bed of 
ashes, quite a correct map of the whole district from the lakes to the Missouri 
river, giving general courses of rivers, designating towns and places of notori- 
ety, even though he had never seen them. * * * It ought to be a matter of 
regret and mortification to us all that our government so wronged this man 
(who so often periled his own life to save those of the whites), by withholding 
from him the title to the land granted him under a solemn treaty. The com- 
missioners representing our government having given him their pledge that the 
land allotted him by the Pottawatomie nation should be guaranteed to him by 
our government, and he protected in its ownership. He never sold his right to 
the land, but by force was driven from it, when he returned from the west to 
take possession and found that our government disregarded his rights and 
sold it." 

* This portrait was painted from life by Mr. F. B. Young, of Rome, N. Y. It 
was presented to the society by Mr. Cyrus F. Miller, of Rockford, at which place 
it was painted in 1840. 



416 Shdbonee. 

lie sale at Dixon. The Lome of the old Chief and his family 
passed into other hands, strangers to him, and in answer to an 
appeal made at Washington in Shabonee's behalf, the Commis- 
sioner of the General Land Department, in answer, said that 
Shabonee had forfeited and lost his title to the lands by removing 
away from them. 

In 1837 Shabonee was notified by the Indian Agent, that by 
the terms of the late treaty, all members of his band, w T ith the 
exception of those of his own family, must remove to their new 
reservations in Western Missouri. The parting with so many of 
those with whom he so long had been associated, he could not 
endure, so he resolved with all his family, to accompany them to 
their new homes. In the fall of the year the whole tribe, some 
130 in number, reached the reservation in safety; but no sooner 
had Shabonee and his family reached their lodges in their new 
homes than new troubles began. The Sauks and Foxes, unfortu- 
nately, had their new reservations in close proximity to that of 
the Pottawattomies and Ottawas. The well-known hostility a few 
years previous of Shabonee to Black Hawk, and the part which 
the Ottawas took against him and his followers in the war which 
followed, were still tresh in the mind of the individual Sauk leader, 
and made enemies of two noted braves who, at an earlier period 
of their career, had for so many years been lighting side by side 
under the eye of their leader Tecumseh. The warfare against 
Shabonee and his family resulted in the murder of his eldest son 
and a nephew, who were killed soon after their arrival in Western 
Missouri. The old Chief Shabonee narrowly escaped with his 
life from the vengeance of his foes. This caused him and his 
family to return to Illinois in about one year after having left it. 
From this time until in 1849, Shabonee and his family, some 20 
to 25 in number, lived at the Grove in peace and quietness with 
the white neighbors surrounding them. By this time the Potta- 
wattomies and Ottawas had been again removed to a new reser- 
vation granted them in Kansas, and Shabonee again, with his 
family, left their old homes in Illinois, to join their red brethren 
in the new one to be occupied. He remained there with his old 
friends and tribe, some three years, then again with his family, 
retraced their steps back to their old home in the Illinois grove, 
only to find his village and lands in the possession of strangers ; 
the old home he and his family had occupied for more than 40 
years, was lost to him forever. When he fully realized his forlorn 
situation, it is said that the old warrior who probably had scarcely 
ever before shed a tear, here " wept like a child." But his cup of 
misery was not yet full. An unfeeling brute, the new owner of, 
the land upon which on his return Shabonee and his family 



Shabonee. 417 

encamped, cursed the poor old man for having cut a few lodge- 
poles on what he thought was his own property, and perempto- 
rily ordered him and his family to leave the Grove. This they 
did, and it is said that Shabonee never visited it again. A few 
friends, realizing the destitute situation in which the poor old 
Chief and his family were placed, purchased for him a small 
tract of twenty acres of timber land on the Mazon Creek, a 
short distance south of Morris, in this State. The situation of 
the land and its surroundings were of a character to suit the In- 
dians. The land was fenced in, a small spot broken up for tillage, 
and a double log cabin built for then. Here in a semi-state of 
poverty and wretchedness, the old Chief and part of his family 
lived, most of the time in wigwams or tents, using the house for 
storage purposes and as a barn. 

Shabonee died July 27, 1859, aged about 83 years. He was 
buried in the county of Morris, and be it said to the shame of the 
white men, no memorial stone, nothing but a piece of board stuck 
in the ground, shows the spot, where lies the remains of the best 
and truest Indian friend which the early settlers of Northern Illi- 
nois had in the day of their tribulation. He was not much of 
an orator, yet his words of wisdom always had their weight in 
council deliberations. Until quite late in life (after his return 
from the "West in 1838), he was remarkably temperate in his 
habits, scarcely ever tasting of the "fire-water," that great enemy 
of his race. No doubt his long association w T ith Tecumseh, 
who also was remarkably temperate in his habits, had its in- 
fluence upon the mind and character of Shabonee. It is well 
known that Tecumseh, both by precept and example, ever tried 
to impress on the minds of his red brethren, that most of the 
unnumbered woes which had been fastened upon their race were 
in the main attributable to their inordinate love of whiskey, and 
the usual debaucheries following its use. Shabonee, in another 
trait of his character, showed what influence had been made upon 
it by the teachings of his model leader Tecumseh, viz.: his hu- 
manity always shown and protection from indiscriminate slaugh- 
ter afforded to the unfortunate captives of war who fell into his 
hands. This is attested to by Caldwell in the document before 
us. 

Surrounded by white neighbors, and almost in daily contact 
with civilized man, yet this contact failed to produce good results. 
On the contrary, that so-called civilized man too often tempted 
the poor old Indian to indulge in a too liberal use of the accursed 
u fire-water," which generally left him in a state of maudlin 
helplessness, pitiable to behold. Let us throw a veil over his few 
faults, and remember his many virtues." 



418 Black Partridge. 

Black Partridge, whose career as a chief preceded that of Sha- 
bonee, was treated like an enemy by the whites, his village being 
burned by them during an invasion of central Illinois in 1812, 
as told in a foregoing chapter. But a few months before this 
wanton act of hostility, to justify which history fails to find 
any provocation, this chief had used his utmost endeavors to 

S -event his tribe from making war upon the garrison of Fort 
earborn, and failing in this purpose, he gave due warning to 
Captain Heald of the irrepressible hostility of the Indians. 
After the massacre, he co-operated with Billy Caldwell to save 
the lives of all the prisoners, and procure for them a safe passage 
to the British lines. To omit a record of the ill-requited services 
of these chiefs, who represented the native virtues of their race, 
would be unjust to their memory, besides losing an opportunity 
to bring to light the benevolent bent of the mind, as exemplified 
in these children of nature. 

Of all people known to history, the Indians are the best subjects 
of whom to study the first elements of mental philosophy, because 
their minds were untrammeled by any other influence except 
what was inherited from nature, which cannot be said of any of the 
ancient nations of savages in the old world. ~No penetration could 
measure from the wooden immobility of his face the depths of 
his subtlety as an enemy; and where in civilized society shall we 
find his match in self-sacrifice, when, as a captive, he returns to 
his enemies on a parole of honor, with an almost certainty that 
he will be executed. 

Numerous instances of this have occurred in their more heroic 
age, but one has recently occurred, a living witness of which 
now lives in Chicago. Among the victims of the Indian Creek 
massacre in the Black Hawk war was a family named Beresford. 
After the peace, two young Indians were identified as the perpe- 
trators of the crime, and indicted by the grand jury of LaSalle 
county and placed in the custody of Mr. George E. Walker, of 
Ottawa, (sheriff.) Soon after, the tribe to which these indicted 
Indians belonged were removed to the Missouri, Mr. Walker 
allowing the alleged criminals to go with them, under a voucher 
that they should return to be tried, and so much confidence did 
he place in their honor, that he signed their bail-bond. Six 
months later their trial came, and Mr. Walker went alone after 
them, and they voluntarily returned to Ottawa in his custody 
for trial, expecting to be executed, but they were cleared for 
want of positive evidence.* Let us not forget the griefs the 
Indians have suffered at the hands of our apostates of civiliza- 

* Ottawa Free Trader, November 17th, 1874. Mr. Walker died in November, 
1874, at the residence of his son in Chicago, No. 34 Indiana Ave. 



Chicago in 1834. 419 

tion, and remember that their condign vengeance was measured 
out to offset these abuses. Never blame an Indian for anything 
he does to a white man, was a frontier proverb, not without some 
shade of justice. 

The following from J. M. Peck's Gazeteer, of Illinois, is copied 
as the best known authority, to show what Chicago was at that 
time. No official census had then been taken, and his statement as 
to the population is an estimate too high in the opinion of 
old settlers. Mr. Williams' estimate for the year before was 200, 
it will be remembered. 

"GAZETTEER OF ILLINOIS." 
Published by R. Goudy, Jacksonville, 1834. 

Chicago, the seat of justice for Cook county, is situated on a river or bay of 
the same name, at the junction of north and south branches, and from one- half 
mile to a mile from Lake Michigan. 

The town is beautifully situated on level ground, but sufficiently elevated 
above the highest floods, and on both sides of the river. It contains three 
houses for public worship, an academy, an infant and other schools, twenty-five 
or thirty-five stores, many of them doing large business, several taverns, mechan- 
ics of various kinds, a printing office which publishes the " Chicago Democrat,'''' 
and ten or twelve hundred inhabitants. 

. Its growth, even for western towns, has been unusually rapid, as two years 
since it contained five stores and 250 inhabitants. 

The United States government is constructing a harbor at the mouth of the 
Chicago, by cutting a wide and deep channel through a sand-bar at its mouth, 
and constructing piers to extend into the lake, beyond the action of the waves 
upon the bar. $25,000.00 were expended last year for this purpose, and the 
present Congress has appropriated an additional sum of $32,801, which, added 
to the previous appropriation, makes the sum of the original estimate. 

When this work is completed, the Chicago will form one of the best harbors 
for steamboats, schooners, and other craft in all the lake regions. Steamboats 
and schooners will pass along a deep natural canal through the center of the 
upper part of the town, with the greatest convenience. 

These facilities, the natural position of the place, the enterprise and capital 
that will concentrate here with favorable prospects for health, must soon make 
this place the emporium of trade and business for all the northern country. 

Back of the town towards the DesPlaines river, is a fertile prairie, and for 
the first three or four miles elevated and dry. 

Along the north branch of the Chicago, and the lake shore are extensive 
bodies of fine timber. White pine in small quantities is obtained on the Cala- 
mic, at the south end of the lake 15 miles distant. Large quantities exist in the 
regions towards Green Bay, from which lumber in any quantities is obtained 
and conveyed by shipping to Chicago. Yellow poplar boards and planks are 
brought across the lake from the St. Joseph's river. 

The mail, in post-coaches from Detroit, arrives here semi- weekly, and departs 
for Galena, for Springfield, Alton and St. Louis, and for Danville and Vin- 
cennes. 

The United States government owns a strip of elevated ground between the 
town and lake, about half a mile in width, on which Fort Dearborn and the 
light-houses are situated. Here are stationed about 100 United States troops, 
including officers, as a check upon the Indians in the adjacent territory. As 
the title to the Indian lands in the northern part of Illinois and the adjoining 
territory, as far as Green Bay, is extinguished by the treaty of September, 18,>3, 
and the Indians are to be removed west of the Mississippi, this garrison will 
soon be broken up, and the town to be extended to the lake shore. 



420 First 'Wharfing Lease. 

Such was the eagerness to obtain property in this place, that the school sec- 
tion adjacent to the town plat, after reserving twelve acres, was sold in small 
lots last October, for $38,705. The money was loaned, out at 10 and 12 percent. 
interest, and the avails applied to the support of schools in the town. Chicago 
is situated on section nine, township thirty-nine north, in range fourteen, east 
of the third principal meridian. 

Chicago, the stream or bay on which the town of Chicago is situated. It is 
made by North and South branches, which form a junction in the upper part 
of the town, about three-fourths of a mile from the lake. The Chicago resem- 
bles a vast canal, from fifty to seventy-five yards wide, and from fifteen to 
twenty-five feet deep. Northerly and easterly winds throw the cool waters of 
the lake into this channel, and raise it about three feet. 

North Branch, which is the largest, rises a short distance above the boundary 
line, and near the lake, and runs parallel with the lake shore a southerly course, 
and is navigable for small boats. Its banks are well timbered and the land 
fertile. 

South Branch rises in an opposite direction in the prairies towards the Saga- 
naskee swamp, runs a northern direction about twenty miles, and forms a junc- 
tion with the North branch in the town of Chicago. The timber is rather scarce 
on the South branch. 1 ' 

The following gentlemen were trustees of the town of Chicago in 1835, as 
appears from the lease of a wharfing lot 50x40 feet on the river, immediately 
west of Clark street bridge. Hiram Hugunin, George W. Dale, Samuel Jack- 
son, Eli. B. Williams, Francis C. Sherman, James Kinzie, Alexander Lloyd, 
Walter Kimball and Bryan King, trustees, leased said lot to L. Harmon, H. G. 
Loorais and D. Harmon. .The terms of the lease were $500.00 cash down, and 
$1,500.00 payable in equal installments of one, two and three years, with interest 
at six per cent, per annum. After which the lesses were to pay an annual rental 
of one barley corn, on the 23d day of November. These were the terms on which 
the wharfing lots were first leased, but subsequently they were modified to suit a 
more modern style of business, when the payment of the annual barley corn, (a 
form inherited from old English usages) was no longer demanded. One of these 
old leases is now in the hands of Mr. G. F. Rumsey. 

The same year a statement appears in the Democrat of November 25th, esti- 
mating the population of Chicago at 3265, inhabitants. This may be set down 
as the first year of that speculative excitement for which Chicago has ever since 
been remarkable. The receipts at the land office which was opened this year, 
exceeded half a million dollars for the first six months. 

The following has been copied from Prof. E. Colbert's Histor- 
ical notes of Chicago, which have been compiled with his accus- 
tomed care, and are here inserted by permission from him: 

" During the summer of 1833 not less than 160 frame houses were erected, and 
the number of stores was increased from five or six to 25. Among the new build- 
ings was the Green Tree Tavern, by J. H. Kinzie, which was the first structure 
ever erected in the place for that purpose; its predecessors were simply pri- 
vate residences, thrown open to the public for a consideration. 

The year 1834 witnessed the establishment of closer commercial relations with 
other points east and west. The second week in April a schooner arrived from 
St. Joseph, and two cleared for the same port._ On the 30th of the same month 
the corporation organ announced that emigration had fairly set in, as more than 
a hundred persons had arrived by boat and otherwise during the preceding t?n 
days. On the 4th of June the Democrat announced that arrangements had 
been made by the proprietors of the steamboats on Lake Erie, whereby Chicago 
would be visited by a steamboat once a week till the 25th of August. On Satur- 
day, July 11th, the schooner Illinois, the first large vessel that ever entered the 
river, sailed into the harbor amid great acclamations, the _ sand having been 
washed away by the freshet of the spring previous. In its issue of September 
3d, the paper stated that 150 vessels had discharged their cargoes at the port of 



Chicago in 1835. 421 

Chicago since the 20th of April preceding. The total number of votes polled in 
the whole of Cook county this year was 528. The poll-list of Chicago had in- 
creased to 111, out of a popu ation of 400, besides 200 soldiers in the tort. It is 
noteworthy that not less than 13 of the 111 were candidates for office at the 
August election. 

In the spring of 1834, a stasre communication was opened up between Chicago 
and the country to the westward, by means of J. T. Temple's line for St. Louis. 
The route to Ottawa was piloted out by John D. Caton, who had previously been 
over the unmarked road on horseback. A bitter storm sprung up, and the 
driver was obliged to resign his post; he died afterward from that day's 
exposure to the cold. Mr. Caton, afterward Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the State, took the stage through to Ottawa, where a better system of roads 
bjegan, the first settlement of the State having been from the southward, as 
a ready stated. 

A large black bear was seen on the morning of October 6th, in a strip of tim- 
ber on the corner of Market and Jackson streets, almost exactly on the spot 
where the armory was afterward built. He was shot; then the citizens got up a 
grand wolf hunt in the same neighborhood, and killed not less than forty of 
those animals before nightfall. It was just at this point, thirty-seven years 
after^ almost to a day, that the flames leaped acro>s the river from the West 
Division, and thence swept northward to the limits of the city. 

In this year a draw- bridge was built across the river at Dearborn street; 
active measures were taken to prevent the spread of the cholera, and a commit- 
tee was authorized to build a cholera hospital outside the town if the disease 
should make it appearance; the first Sunday liquor law was passed (September 
1st); the large sum of forty dollars was paid for repairing bridges; and the town 
was divided into four wards, by an ordinance intended to prevent fires. Prior 
to this year all the stores were located on South Water street — indeed, Lake 
street, and all the streets southward of it, only existed on paper. In the autumn 
of 1834, Thomas Church erected a store on Lake street, which was soon the 
busiest in the whole town. The packing statistics of the year show that Mr. 
Clybourne packed 600 cattle, and more than 3,000 hogs; while Messrs. Newberry 
& Dole slaughtered some 400 cattle and 1,400 hogs in a packing house of their 
own, recently built on the south branch. The same year Gurdon S. Hubbard 
packed 5,000 hogs, on the corner of Lake and LaSalle streets. 

The first water works of the future city was established about this time, the 
sum of $95.50 being paid for the digging, stoning, and stone of a well, in Kinzie's 
addition, on the north side. 

In 1835 the hotel accommodations of the year increased in proportion to the 
population. Besides the Green Tree Hotel, on the corner of Lake and Canal 
streets, there were now three others. The Tremont House had been erected a 
year previously, on the northwest corner of Lake and Dearborn, and the loungers 
of that day used to stand on its steps and shoot the ducks on the river, or on the 
slough that lay before the door. Starr Foot was the first landlord, but he 
speedily gave way to Ira Couch, under whose management the Tremont soon 
became head-quarters for the travelers and speculators with which the town 
abounded. It was burned down in 1839, in the second fire that had visited the 
place, the first having occurred in 1834. The Graves (log) tavern stood nearly 
opposite the Tremont, and the Sasran ash Hotel offered accommodations for man 
and beast, on the corner of Market and Lake streets, the spot where Lincoln 
was nominated in 1860 for the presidency. At that date the grove of timber 
along the east side of the south branch was still undisturbed, the north division 
was thickly studded with trees, a few pines stood on the lake shore south of the 
harbor, the timber being thickest near the river, and a great pine tree stood near 
the foot of Randolph street. 

By an act of the Legislature, approved February 11, 1853, all the land east of 
State street, from Twelfth street to Chicago avenue, was included within the 
town lines; except that it was provided that the Fort Dearborn reservation, lying 
between Madison street and the river, should not belong to the town till vacated 
by the United States. 



422 Seal of Chicago. 

In this year (June) an attempt was made to borrow money on the credit of* the 
town. The treasurer was authorized to borrow $2,000, at not more than ten per 
cent, interest, and payable in twelve months. He resigned rather than face tue 
novel responsibility, and the street commissioner followed suit. 

In this year the Chicago American entered the field to compete with the Demo- 
crat for the advertising patronage of the town and iis citizens. 

Two additional buildings were p ! aced in the court house square in 1835 — a 
small brick edifice on the northeast corner, for the use of the county officers and 
the safe keeping of the records, and an engine-house, costing $220, the latter 
not being finished till the following year. The first fire engine was bought 
December 10th, of Messrs. Hubbard and Co., for the sum of $896.38, and a 
second ordered. The first fire-engine company was organized two days after- 
wards. 

On the 14th of November the Board of Town Trustees resolved to sell the 
leases of the wharfing privileges in the town for the term of 999 years, binding 
the board to dredge the river to the depth of ten feet at least, within four years 
from the sale, and the lessees of the privileges being bound to erect good docks, 
five feet wide and three feet above the water, within two years from the date of 
the lease. The sale of those immensely valuable privileges took place on the 
26th of November, 1835, at the store of Messrs. Jones, King & Co., and it may 
be interesting to remember now the "minimum prices " at which owners of lots 
fronting the river had the privilege of buying. On South Water street the price 
was $25 per front foot; on North Water street, $18.75 per front foot; on West 
Water street $18 per front foot. The men who got rich in buying such prop- 
erty, at such prices, deserve no credit for speculative ability. But the board, on 
the 18th of November, 1835, offered still further assistance in their new school of 
" affluence made easy." They then resolved that they would not be bound to 
dredge the river, in making leases on North Water street, consequently they 
lowered the minimum figure to $15 per front foot, in part, and $8.50 per front foot 
on the remainder of the line. To aid in paying for leases at this rate, the board 
took secured notes for three and six months, for the first payment of one quar- 
ter of the price, and gave three years in which to pay off the balance. The sale 
was three times postponed, and while waiting for a sale all the picked lots 
seemed to have been taken at a minimum price. When the vendue did take 
place, only six lots remained to be sold, and but one of these found a purchaser, 
at $26 per front foot. The city will have the right to resume possession of these 
valuable lots on the 26th day of November, A. D. 2834. The "privileges " thus 
thrown away by a lot of men who ought to have known better, subsequently 
became matter of much anxious legislation on the part of the board, and with 
the sale of the magnificent school lands, made October 21, 1833, on a petition 
signed bv twenty-three citizens, form the two great sores in the history of the 
city. Both were literally "sold for a mere song." The school-lands, sold for 
$38,865, have since been worth nearly fifty millions. 

The official seal was adopted in November, 1835 — a spread-eagle having three 
arrows in his claws, and the words "United States of America" surrounding 
the same." 

Among other ambitions developed in Chicago as a town, was 
ship-building, and on the 18th of May, 1836, the sloop Clarissa 
slid from her stocks into the river, amidst the huzzas of a large 
assemblage gathered there to celebrate the event. But the great 
attraction of the year was the celebration of turning the first sod 
for the canal excavation, which is told as follows by Mr. John L. 
"Wilson, who was an eye witness: 

"The beginning of the canal was celebrated July 4th, 1836, by 
nearly the whole village of Chicago going up to Bridgeport 
on the small steamer George W. Dole, towing two schooners. 



Chicago in 1836. 423 

Doctor ¥m. B. Egan delivered the address on this most auspicious 
event, and the Hon. Theophihis W. Smith began the "ditch" 
by throwing out the first shovel full of earth. The celebration 
of " the day we celebrate " then began, and a right joyous one 
it was, as the Canal Bill had struggled long in its passage through 
the Legislature, and the probability of ever having a railroad to 
or from Chicago was hardly dreamed of. On arranging and 
starting the " flotilla " homeward bound, a squad of men on the 
banks of the narrow river, without any cause, began throwing 
stones into the steamer, breaking the cabin windows, and injur- 
ing one or two ladies, and keeping up the fusilade until a de- 
tachment of a dozen or more " old settlers " jumped ashore, 
(or rather into the shallow water), and charged among them. 
Those that I now remember were John H. and Kobert A. I£inzie, 
Stephen F. Gale, John and Richard L. Wilson, Henry G. Hub- 
bard, Gurdon S. Hubbard, Sr., James B. Campbell, Ashvel Steele, 
S. B. Cobb, Mark Beaubien and others. There were none of the 
enemy standing as soon as they could be reached. The weapons 
used were only those brought into action in the c manly art of 
self-defense/ but they proved exceedingly efficient. And thus 
ended the < glorious 4th ' of July, 1836." * 

The year 1836 closes the career of Chicago as a town, the 
next year being her first as a city. The following is her com- 
mercial record till that time: 

YEAR. NO. VESSELS ARRIVED. TONNAGE. 

1833 4 700 

1834 176 5,000 

1835 250 22,500 

1836 450. . . 60,000 

The above list of arrivals of vessels, especially in 1834, consisted largely of 
three small schooners running to and from St. Joseph to carry passengers and 
flour. The arrivals, previous to 1833, consisted first of the schooner Tracy, 
which brought the officers to build the fort in 1803, after which an annual arrival 
of supplies from the fort came, during the time there was a garrison at the 
fort. The steamboat William Penn was used for this purpose in 1832, 3 
and 4, bringing supplies to Ft. Gratiot, Macinac, and Ft. Howard at the same 
time. Besides these channels of communication with the East, was a wagon 
track around the head of the lake, thence one branch running to Detroit, and 
another to Fort Wayne. This road ran along the beach, crossing the Calumet 
by means of a ferry which had been established June 7th, 1830, by the county 
commissioners of Peoria county granting to Rev. Wm. Lee the right to keep the 
ferry, with a stipulated bill of charges for ferriage, as follows: 12% cents for a 
foot passenger; 25 cents for a man and horse; 3TU cents for a wagon and one 
horse; 75 cents for a wagon and two horses, and $1.00 for a wagon and four 
horses. 

* Mr. Wilson's recent contributions to the Chicago press have teemed with 
reminiscences of the early day here which pleasantly freshen the memories of 
early Chicago in the minds of many thousands of its citizens. 



424 



List of Old Settlers. 



LIST OF SETTLERS OF CHICAGO WHO CAME BETWEEN 
JANUARY, 1831, AND DECEMBER, 1836. 

Prepared by Col. Adolphus S. Hubbard. 



NAMES. 


NATIVITY. 


YEAR. 


REMARKS. 






1834 
1836 
1833 
1833 
1835 
1834 
1835 
1835 
1834 
1835 
1836 
1830 
1836 
1830 
1835 
1836 
1832 
1834 
1834 
1831 
1836 
1835 
1833 
1836 
1834 
1836 
1832 
1835 
1832 
1836 
1836 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1835 
1836 
1836 
1835 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1835 
1835 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1833 
1836 
1835 
1835 
1833 
1833 
1832 
1835 
1833 
1836 
1835 
1836 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1835 


Post Master 1840. 


Abel Ralph M. P., 




Clerk Post Office. 










New York 

do 

do 
W. Indies 

do 

Vermont 

England 

New York 










County Commissioner 1836 ; dead. 
Dead. 






Dead. 


Albee Cyrus P 


Dead. 




Chicago. 

First City Clerk and Member Congress. 

Voted in 1830. 






Ban die, Willis 


Conn. 












Fire Warden 1836. 




New York 
do 


Died Waukegan 1871. 






County Surveyor 1836; California. 

Chicago. 

Dead. 




Maryland 






New York 


Chicago. 
Dead 


Bailey H G 


Bascom, Rev. Flavel, 


Conn. 
Vermont 
Scotland 
New York 
do 
do 
Germany- 
do 
Conn, 
do 
New York 

Ohio 
Germany- 
do 
Illinois 
New York 

do 

England 

New York 

do 


Hinsdale, 111. 
Brattleboro, Vt. 




Attorney; dead. 

City Undertaker ; dead. 

Chicago. 

Died Iowa 1880. 


Bates, A. S., 






Baumgarden, Morris, 


Dead. 
Dead. 








Alderman 1843 ; died February, 1878. 




Berry, Benj. A., 


First hardware merchant ; dead. 




Englewood, 111. 
Dead. 


Berry, Thomas, 


Betts, Dr. J. T., 


Dead. 








Dead. 


Blanch ard, Francis G., 

Blatchford, Bev. F. W., 

Blatchford E W 


Dead. 
Dead. 

Chicago, 111. 
Haniplan, 111. 






Vermont 

New York 

do 




Delegate to draw up City Charter. 
Alderman 1837; dead. 


Bolles, Peter 




Died 1855. 




Kentucky 

do 

New York 

Scotland 

Illinois 

do 

Conn. 

New York 

Penn. 

do 

do 

N. H. 

New York 

N. H. 
England 

do 
New York 


Chicago. 
Ex-Mayor. 


Boone, Levi D., 




Shipmaster, Chicago. 






Chicago. 
Chicago. 


Brown, S. Lockwood, 




Drove first U. S, mail stage into Chicago. 
Dead. 








Boyer, Dr. V. A., 

Bradley, Asa F., 


Chicago. 

County Surveyor 1838. 




Chicago. 
Dead. 


Bradley, S. S., 




Legal News Office ; Probate Judge. 




Brainard, Dr. Daniel, 

Brock, Thomas, 


Died October, 1866. 
Candidate for Alderman, 1837. 



List of Old Settlers. 



425 



NATIVITY. YEAR. 



Brookes, Henry, 

Brookes. Samuel L...... 

Brown, Henry, 

Brown, Rufus, 

Brown, A. J., 

Brown, Wm. H 

Browen, Lemuel, 

Brown, S. S 

Brown, N. J., 

Burley, Arthur G., 

Burley, Augustus H., . 

Bowen, Erastus 

Brown, Jeduthan, 

Brackett, E. C, 

Boilvin,N., 

Burton, Stiles 

Beaubien, Charles, 

Beaubien, Alexander, 
Beaubien, Stephen N., 
Burnham, Ambrose, .... 

Ballard, C. A 

Beaubien, Mark, Sr., .... 
Beaubien, Mark, Jr., .... 
Badin, Rev. Stephen T., 

Blodgett, Israel P., 

Blodgett, Tyler K., 

Bond, William, 

Bond, Ezra, 

Butterfield, Lyman, 

Brown, Jesse B., 

Bosley, John 

Cyrst, Rev. J. M. I., 

Cook, Isaac, 

Clark, James, 

Carver, Benjamin 

Carver, David 

Casey, Edward W., 

Chapman, George, 

Couch, Ira H., 

Carter, James B., 

Chapin, John P., 

Casey, John 

Casey, Peter, 

Casey, Patrick, 

Casey, Edward, 

Carrig, Thomas 

Campbell, James, 

Carpenter, Abel E., 

Carpenter, Philo, 

Caton, John Dean, 

Caton, W. P., 

Chackfield, George, 

Clark, John K., 

Clark, L.J. , 

Clark, Norman, 

Clark, Timothy B., 

Clark, William H 

Clark, Henrv A 

Clark, Henrv B 

Clancy, M. B., 

Cleaver, Charles, 

Conner, F. G., 

Couch, Ira 

Corrigan, William 

Couch, James, 

Collins, James H., 

Cobb, Silas B., 

Cohen, Peter, 

Collins, Addison, 

Church, W. L., 

Child, S D., 

Church, Thomas 

Calhoun, John, 



England 
New York 



New York 

Conn. 

Mass. 

Ohio 
New York 

N. H. 
do 

Wales 



Michigan 

do 

France 

Mass. 

do 



Penn. 

France 

New Jersey 

New York 

do 

do 

do 



New York 



N. H. 

Ireland 

do 

do 

do 

do 

Penn. 

Mass. 

do 

New York 

do 
England 
Virginia 
Vermont 

do 
New York 

Mass. 

New York 

do 



England 

New York 

do 

Ireland 

New York 

do 

Vermont 

France 



New York 



New York 
do 



1833 
1833 
183G 
1836 
1836 
1835 
1833 
1S35 
1836 
183-5 
1836 
1834 
183-3 



1835 
1836 
1822 
1822 
1831 
1836 
1833 
1826 
1826 
1828 
1833 
1S33 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1836 
1832 
1834 
1835 
1836 
1833 
1833 
1833 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1834 
1836 
1833 
1832 
1833 
1836 
1835 
1828 
1836 
1835 
1831 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1833 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1833 
1833 
1834 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1S33 



Dead. 

San Francisco. 

Author History of Illinois; died 1849. 

Dead. 

Alderman 1852. 

President Historical Society. 

Blacksmith ; Kenwood. 

Dead. 

Lemont, 111. 

Chicago. 

Alderman 1880. 

Candidate for Assessor 1837; dead. 

Kept .New City Hotel; dead. 

Member of first Engine Company. 

Street Commissioner 1833. 

Dead. 

Dead. 

Chicago. 

Dead. 

City Marshal 1850 ; dead. 

Voted first election 1833. 

Newark. 111. 

Died at Hannibal. Mo., 1878. 

First Catholic priest ; dead. 

First bri' kmaker. 

Chicago Company Black Hawk war. 

Chicago Company Black Hawk war. 

Soldier Black Hawk war. 

Chicago Company Black Hawk war. 

Corner Harrison and Aberdeen Streets. 

Second Catholic priest ; Carondelet, Mo. 

Sheriff 1846 ; Post Master 1S54. 

Dead. 

Died Chicago 1879. 

Voted first town election 1833. 

Town Attorney 1834. 

Voted first toAvn election 1833. 

Quaker gentleman ; dead. 

Chicago. 

Mayor 1846. 

Living, aged 85. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

California. 

Died 1838. 

Chicago. 

Aurora, 111. 

Chicago. 

Chief Justice of Illinois. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Coroner 1831 ; dead. 

Chicago. 

Racine. 

First Road Viewer. 

Died 1878. 

Died 1862. 

Died 1849. 

Cleaverville. 

Died 1861. 

Vault in Lincoln Park. 

Died 1879. 

Chicago. 

Died at Ottawa, 111., 1854. 

City Railroad. 

Soldier of Napoleon. 

Counts- Surveyor 1835. 

Sheriff 1850. 

Engraver; Chicago. 

Candidate for Mayor. 

Founder Chicago Democrat ; dead. 



426 



List of Old Settlers. 



NAMES. 


NATIVITY. 


YEAR. 


REMARKS. 




New York 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 


1833 
1835 
1834 
1835 
1835 
1833 
1832 
1833 
1834 
1S31 
1836 
1835 
1835 
1833 
1836 
1833 
1833 
1836 
1831 
1836 
1835 
1836 
1835 
1836 
1836 
1835 
1836 
1836 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1831 
1832 


Candidate High Constable 1837 ; died 1849. 
Mayor 1847. 






Attorney, Milwaukee. 






Judge election 1837. 

Dead. 

Voted in 1833. 


Chapman, Charles H 




England 

New York 
England 


Alderman 3 S44; great singer; dead. 
Established Chicago American. 
Dead. 


Davis', Thomas 0., 










Densmore, Eleazer W 


New York 


Chicago. 

On Cholera Committee 1834. 


Dickev Hugh. T 


New York 

Penn. 

do 

Vermont 

New York 

do 

Maine 

New York 

Vermont 

Conn. 

do 


Judge Superior Court 1845. 
Dead. 


Dodson W S 


Dodson, C. B., 


Geneva, 111. 

Prospect Park, 111. 

Town Treasurer 1835, and Post Master 1851. 


Dole, George W., 






Drummond, Thomas, 


United States Judge. 
Dead. 


Dyer, Dr. Charles V., 


Probate Judge 1837 ; died in 1878. 

Mayor 1856. 

Chicago. 

Dead. 






Dye, Nathan, 

Dean, Philip, 


New York 


Old music teacher ; Chicago. 
City Constable ; dead. 






Dead. 


Darling, Lucius R., 




Dead. 






Dead. 






Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk Avar. 
Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 






Eddy, Ira B., 




Egan, Dr. W. B., 


Ireland 

New York 

Illinois 

England 


1833 
1836 
1835 
1834 
1832 
1834 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1S33 
1831 
1836 
1836 
1833 
1833 
1834 
1834 
1834 
1836 
1830 
1836 
1836 
1836 


State Senator ; dead. 




President Board of Trade. 




Chicago. 

Alderman 1842; dead. 




Ellis. Joel, 


Chicago. 


Eldndge Dr J W., 


New York 


Chicago. 




Flood, Peter F 

Flood P H 


Ireland 

New York 

Conn. 

do 

do 

Michigan 

Mass. 
New York 

Penn. 
Vermont 

do 

New York 

do 

Illinois 

Vermont 

Mass. 

Maine 


Chicago. 
Elmira, N. Y. 


Foot, David P., 


Dead. 
Dead. 




Ex-County Agent; dead. 
Candidate for Assessor 1S37 ; dead. 


Forsyth, William 






Freer, L. C. Paine, 






Naperville, 111. 

First Baptist Clergyman. 

Attorney. 

Died in 1854. 


Freeman, Rev. A. B., 


Fullerton, Alexander N., .. 
Ford. Martin M 


Ford, David M., 


Chicago. 

Chicago. 

First County Sheriff; died February 11, 1879. 


Ford, Elisha M., 

Forbes, S. V. R 








Foster Dr J PI , 


School Inspector. 

Member ot first Engine Company. 

Dead. 










1830 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1835 
1835 
1832 
1836 
1834 
1833 
1836 


Gale, Abram 

Gale, William H 


Mass. 

do 

do 

N. H. 

New York 

do 

do 


Galewood, 111. 
Galewood, 111. 


Gale, Edwin 


Oak Park, 111. 


Gale, Stephen F 


Chicago. 








Virieland, N. J.; Alderman 1840. 




Died 1880. 


Gage, S. T., 


Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 




Canada 
New York 


Sheriff 1838. 




Dead. 




Voted in 1833. 


Gilbert, Samuel II., 


England 


Died 1879. 



List of Old Settlers. 



427 



NAMES. 


NATIVITY. 


YEAE. 


BEMABKS. 


Goodrich, T. W 


New York 

do 

Canada 

New York 

do 

Mass. 

New York 

N. H. 

New York 

do 

N. C. 

New York 

do 


1832 
1834 
1834 
1834 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1832 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1836 
1833 
1834 
1832 
1835 
1832 
1834 
1834 
1829 
1832 
1833 
1831 
1833 
1833 
1832 
1835 
1832 
1836 
1832 
1835 
1831 
1834 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1833 
1835 
1832 
1832 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1835 
1836 


Milwaukee. 

Ex-Judge. 

Aldennan 1837; died at Rockford, HI. 

Chicago. 

Mayor 1853. 

Hyde Park. 

Elgin, 111. 


Goodhue, Dr. J. C 


Gray, Charles M., 


Gray. Joseph H 

Graff, Peter, 




Alderman 1845; Kaneville, 111. 




Dead. 




Tavern Keeper. 
Davenport, Iowa. 






Grannis, Samuel J., 


Grandfather of A.G.Lane.Supt.Com.Schools. 
Dead. 


Grannis, Samuel W., 


New York 

do 

do 

do 

do 
Vermont 


Chicago. 
Died 1864. 




Died en route to California. 


Green, Capt. Russell, 

Guild Albert H 


Geneva, Wis. 




Dead 




Town Trustee 1834. 




New York 
Illinois 
England 


Wood Inspector 1835. 
Shoemaker; dead. 


Halt, Ed. B., 




Dead 


Hapgood, Dexter J., 


Voted in 1833. 


Hanson, Oliver C 

Hallam, Rev. J. W. f 


S. Domingo 
New York 
Vermont 

do 

do 

do 
New York 

do 
Vermont 


Colored man ; alive. 

First Episcopal Minister ; Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Member Chicago Co.Black Hawk war ; dead. 

County Treasurer 1834 ; dead. 

Dead. 


Harmon, Dr. E. D., 






Dead 








Chicago. 
Chicago. 






Hall, Benjamin, 


Virginia 
New York 


Wheaton, 111. 


Hall, Phil. A 






Dead 


Hamilton, A. C., 




Candidate for Assessor 1837 ; dead. 


Hamilton, Col. R. J., 


Kentucky 
New York 

do 

do 

do 
N. H. 


County Clerk 1831 to 1837 ; dead. 

Chicago. 

Office Public Works 


Hamilton, Pol. D., 






Mayor 1858. 
Chicago. 
Alderman 1838. 
Dead. 




Haddock, Edward H 

Harrington, H., 


Harris, Benjamin, 




Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
County Treasurer 1851 ; Chicago. 
Dead 


Herndon, John F., 




Heald, H. N 




Heartt, Daniel B., „ 


New York 

do 

do 

England 

New York 


Heartt, Robert, 


Chicago. 
Chicago. 
Chicago. 
Countv Clerk 1861 


Hickling, William 


Hilliard, Loren P 


Hyde, Thomas S., 


Member of first Engine Company. 
First Secretary G. & C. U. R. R.; dead. 


Howe, Frank, 




1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1832 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1825 
1835 
1829 
1830 


Howe, James L., 


New York 

N. H. 

do 

Vermont 

New York 


Hough, R. M., 




Hough, 0. S., 




Holden, C. C. P 

Hobbie, A. G.,.. 


Alderman 1861. 


Hooker, John W., 


Dead 


Horton, Dennison, 


Conn. 


Chicago. 

County Commissioner 1845 ; dead. 


Hogan, Charles L. P., 

Hogan, John S. C 


Holbrook, John, 




Member first Engine Company 1835. 

Dead. 

Chicago. 

State Senator 1840, and Post Master 1865. 

Died 1839, aged 26 years. 

Chicago. 

Died 1849 


Howe, Fred A., Sr., 

Howe, Fred A., Jr., 


Conn, 
do 

Mass. 

Conn. 
Illinois 

Mass. 
Vermont 




Hubbard, E. K., Sr., 

Hubbard, E. K., Jr., 

Hubbard, Henry G., 


Hubbard, Ahira 


Dead ; Graceland Cemetery. 






428 



List of Old Settlers. 



NAMES. 


NATIVITY. 


YEAR. 


REMARKS. 


Hubbard Theodore, 


Vermont 

New York 
do 

do 


1836 

1836 
1836 

1836 

1831 

1834 

1835 

1836 
1835 
1834 

1833 

1833 
1833 

1836 

1833 

1835 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1833 
1836 
1833 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1833 
1836 
1833 
1833 
1832 
1833 
1835 
1835 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1835 
1831 
1831 

1831 
1831 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1S32 
1832 
1832 
1832 
1834 
1836 
1833 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1834 
1832 
1835 
1835 
1834 
1836 
1834 
1835 
1832 


/Post Master Babcock's Grove, Du Page 
\ County, 111., 1844 ; died Feb. 1, 1873. 
Alderman of Amboy, 111.; died April 28, 1865. 
Judge election 1878 ; died September 13, 1879. 


Hubbard, Augustus G., 

Hubbard, Carlos C, 




j Served in Confederate Army 1862. 1863 and 

\ 1864 ; died in Texas, April 24, 1877. 

Washington, D. C. 

f County Commissioner 1834 ; County Treas- 

( urer 1837 ; died California. 

Judge election 1837 ; dead. 

Died in 1879. 




Hunter, E. E., 


Kentucky 










Vermont 
New York 

do 

do 
do 

do 

do 
do 
do 
do 
do 


Chicago, 111. 

Carriagemaker ; Ohio. 

J President of Town Trustees 1835 ; died at 


Humphrey. James 


Hugunin, Dr. Peter D., 

Hugunin, Leonard C, 


( Waukegan 1857. 

County Judge Wisconsin ; dead. 

232 South Halsted Street. 

(Pilot for Com. Perry on Lake Erie War 




\ 1812; dead. 


Hugunin, John C 


Candidate for Alderman 1837. 
Died Oakland, Cal., 1878. 






Hubbard, Eber, 


Cut down North wing Dearborn St. bridge. 
Kept Green Tree House. 
Alderman 1847 ; died 1864. 






New York 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 




Alderman 1837 ; died 1849 




Deputy Grand Master of Masons. 
Dead 






Dead 


Jackson! William W., 


An TJ. S. Army Officer of the Rebellion. 
Deputy Collector of Port 1843 ; dead. 
Builder ; died April 10, 1873. 
Colored barber ; dead. 




Virginia 










Jones, Willard, 




Member First Baptist Church 1833. 


Jones, William, 


Mass. 

do 

New York 

do 

do 


President Board of Education. 








Chicago, 111. 
Quincy, 111. 


Jones, K. K., 


Johnson, Lathrop 


Ontonagon, Mich. 








New York 

do 
Kentucky 

do 

New York 

do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
Illinois 
New York 
do 
do 
do 


First City Attorney and Member Congress. 






Capt. Chicago Co. Black Hawk war; dead. 

County Commissioner 1832 ; dead. 

f Treated first case Asiatic cholera in Amer- 

t ica ; died 1862. 

Attorney ; died in Mexico 1840. 




Kennicott, Dr. John A 




Kennicott, Dr. William H., 


Candidate for Mayor 1849 ; died 1853. 

Silver Cliff, Col. 

Civil Engineer ; died at The Grove 1849. 

To California 1849 ; resides Kenwood, 111. 

Farmer Arlington Haights, 111. 

Farmer Barrington, 111. 

Oakland, Cal. 


Kennicott, Jonathan, 

Kennicott, Dr. Jonathan A., 




Kimball, Harlow, 




Chicago. 

Clerk Superior Court 1849 ; Chicago. 

County Treasurer 1835 ; dead. 

Naperville, 111. 

Chicago. 

Dead. 


Kimball, Walter, 


Kimball, Henry 

Knickerbocker, H. W., 

King Tuthill, 




Kimberly, Dr. E. S., 

Kimberly, George E 


First Town Clerk ; died Oct. 25, 1874. 

Chicago, 111. 

Harbor Master ; dead. 

Dead. 


Knickerbocker, Ab. V., 




Dead. 


King, Byram, 


Town Trustee 1835. 


Lathrop, S. S., 


Dead. 






Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 


LaFromboise, Joseph, 




LaFromboise, Claude, 






Meinbei Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 



List of Old Settlers. 



429 



NAMES. 


NATIVITY. 


YEAR. 


REMARKS. 


Larrabee, William M 


Canada 

N. H, 

Ireland 

do 

France 

Maryland 

do 


1834 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
18:34 
18134 
18:3-1 
18:35 
1833 
183-5 
1836 
1834 
1836 
1834 
1836 
18:34 
1833 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1 835 
1832 
1834 
*1835 
1834 
1833 
1836 
1830 
18:34 
1835 
1835 
1832 
1830 
1834 
1836 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1833 
1836 
1836 
18:34 
1835 
1836 
1834 
1835 
1835 
1833 
1833 
18:35 
1833 
1835 
1834 
1834 
1835 
1835 
18:34 
1836 
1834 
1832 
1834 
18:35 
1835 
1832 
1831 
18:34 
1834 
1832 
1832 
1836 


Alderman 1846 ; died 1879. 

A trusted city official for 20 years ; Chicago. 

Stepfather Genl. J. A. Mulligan ; dead. 








Ex-Fire Commissioner ; Chicago. 
Chicago. 


Letz, George F., 


Leary, Albert G 


Member State Legislature ; Attorney ; dead. 




Dead. 


Lowe, Samuel J., Jr., 




Chicago. 


Lill William 


England 

New York 

do 




Lincoln, Solomon 


First Tailor in Chicago ; dead. 

Member first Engine Company 1835 ; dead. 

Candidate for Alderman 1837. 


Logan, Alexander, 


Loomis, Horatio G., 


Vermont 
do 

England 
New York 

Ireland 
New York 

England 

NeAV York 

do 

Germany 


Located Co.seatDuPage Co.1839 ; Naperville. 
Burlington, Vt. 
Sheriff 1842 ; died 1850. 


Lowe, Samuel J 








Mayor 1840; dead. 
Dead 






Dead 




Dead 


Magie, H. H., 


Died January 16, 1879. 
Dead 






Judge of election 1837. 
Died. Geneva, Wis. 


Maxwell, Dr. Phillip, 


New York 

Conn. 
New York 
England 

N. H. 
New York 

Ireland 

New York 

Canada 

do 








Chicago. 




McDaniels, Alexander, 

McConnell, Ed 


Wilmette, 111. 
Died May 11, 1878. 
Michigan. 






Chicago. 

Judge of election 1837 ; dead. 




McClintock, James, 






NeAV York 
Ireland 

do 

Scotland 

N. H. 

New Jersey 

Vermont 

Canada 

Kentucky 

New York 

Ireland 

New York 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

Conn. 

Illinois 

Ireland 

New York 

Ireland 

Germany 

France 


Alderman 1841 and 1843 ■ died 1871 








McGrath's Addition to Chicago. 
Chicago. 








Dead 




Alderman 1839; died Janesville, Wis., 1879. 
Member Old Settlers Society 1856. 
Mavor 1S38 ; died 1880. 




Morris, Buckner S., 

Morton, N. B 




Livery Stable. 




Morrison, Charles, 




Morrison, Ephraim, Sr. 

Morrison, James M 


Dead. 

Fire Warden 1836 ; dead. 

Coroner 1836 ; Alderman 1840 ; dead. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

School Inspector; dead. 

Alderman in 1839; kept hotel ; died in 1849. 


Morrison, Orsemus, 


Morrison, Ephraim, Jr., 




Mosley, Flavel, 


Murphy, John 


Murphv, Hiram P., 


Murphv, James K., 


Chicago. 

Died March 5, 1878. 

Judge of election 1837. 


Mulford, E. H 


Murphy, Patrick, 


Migleley, Rudolphy 


Meyer, Mathias, 


Baker; Wolf's Point; died 1851. 
Member first Engine Company 1835. 
Member first Engine Company 1835. 
Member first Engine Company 1835. 
Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
Naperville, I1L 

Oldest person living born Ft. Dearborn. 
Alderman 1851 ; died November 6, 1868. 
Chicago ; came with Gen. Scott 1832. 
Dead. 
Livery Stable. 


Monroe, N. L. F., 


Markle, A. A., 




McForreston, W. 




Moselle, Charles, 




Murray, R. N., 






Illinois 
New Y'ork 


Newberry, Walter L., 

Nichols, Luther, 


Nichols, E. C, 


New York 
England 


Nickalls, Pattieson, 



430 



List of Old Settlers. 



NAMES. 


NATIVITY. 


YEAR. 


REMARKS. 






1832 

1831 

1831 

1833 

1835 

1836 

1835 

1834 

1832 

1832 

1832 

1832 

1832 

1834 

1834 

1831 

1836 

1835 

1834 

1831 

1831 

1834 

1830 

1834 

1836 

1832 

1833 

1832 

1835 

1835 

1835 

1836 

1835 

1833 

1835 

1836 

1833 

1833 

1835 

1831 

1833 

1836 

1836 

1836 

1833 

1835 

1836 

1831 

1832 

1832 

1834 

1834 

1831 

1835 

1836 

1834 

1833 

1836 

1835 

1832 

1833 

1835 

1834 

1836 

1834 

1834 

1836 

1834 

1836 

1835 

1836 

1836 

1835 


Voted first Town Election 1833. 




New York 
England 


Chicago. 
Dead. 






Built first draw bridge. 

First Mayor ; died August 3, 1877. 

Probate Judge 1839 to 1847 ; died Feb. 13, 1880. 

Laporte, Ind. 




New York 

do 

Conn. 

do 










Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
Early Truckman ; dead. 
20 Bunker Street, Chicago. 






O'Rourke,' Peter, Sr 

O'Rourke, Peter, Jr., 


Ireland 

do 

do 

do 

do 
Kentucky- 
England 
Scotland 
Vermont 


O'Neil Thomas 


Chicago. 
Ex-Town Collector. 




Owen T J V 


First Trustee and Indian Agent 1833 ; dead. 










Dead 


Park, F. D., 


Chicago. 

On Cholera Committee 1834; Ohio. 


Palmer, J. K., 


N. H. 


Pettitt, Charles M 




Peck, P. F. W 


R. I. 

Canada 

England 

Ohio 

do 

do 
Virginia 

New York 
do 
do 


Judge election 1837 ; died 1871. 

Judge U. S. Court of Claims. 

Chicago. 

Vallejo, Cal. 

Die*d in Providence, R. I. 

Died in Springfield, 111. 

Attorney; dead. 

Attorney; dead. 

Dead. 






Pearsons, Gustavus C 

Pearsons, Hiram, 

Pearsons, George T., 


Peyton, Lucien, 


Perry, Albert, 




Dead. 




Candidate for Assessor 1837 ; died 1851. 


Pierce, Smith D 


Belmont, Iowa. 






Dead. 




New York 
Vermont 
New York 

do 

Penn. 

New York 

Ireland 

do 
New York 

do 


Chicago. 

Alderman 1837 ; Chicago. 

Died 1879 






Powers, William G., 


Dead. 


Pool, J. W., 


Chicago. 


Porter, Rev. Jeremiah, 


Wyoming. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Agent Canal Land ; died January 3, 1879. 


Prindiville, Redmond, 

Prescott, Eli S., 




Powell, George N., 


Tavern Keeper. 

Chicago. 

Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 

Dead. 


Porter, F. H., 












Poor, J. H., 




Member first Presbyterian Church 1833. 

Member first Engine Company 1835. 

Member first Engine Company 1835. 

First teamster from La Fayette, Ind.; Mich. 

Chicago. 

Mayor 1839. 

First City Surveyor ; Chicago. 

Blue Island. 

Ex-Constable; dead. 


Parson, H. C, 




Perkins, T., 




Paul, James K 

Rand, Socrates, 


New York 

do 

Penn. 

Mass. 


Raymond, B. W 


Rees, James H., 

Rexford, Stephen, 

Rhines, Henry, 




New York 




Rider, Eli A 


Voted in 1833. 






Supervisor of Roads and Bridges 1834. 

Chicago. 

Fire Warden 1836 ; Batavia, 111. 


Rodgers, Edward K 

Rockwill. James, 


Mass. 


Roberts, William P 


New York 


841 North Wood Street 


Resique, Samuel, 


Fire Warden 1834; dead. 


Rue, John C 


New York 
Conn. 

New York 
do 


Chicago. 

Kept old City Hotel ; dead. 

Removed the Indians from Chicago ; dead 

Chicago. 

Mayor 1861. 

Printed City Ordinances 1839. 




Russell, Col. J. B. F., 

Rumsey, George F., 




Rudd, Edward H 




Scotland 


Ryan, E. G., 


Chief Justice Wisconsin 1880. 



List of Old Settlers. 



431 



NAMES. 


NATIVITY. 


YEAR. 


REMARKS. 


Satterlee, M. L 

Sattonstall, W. W 


Conn. 
New York 
Michigan 

Maine 
New Jersey 
New York 

Conn. 
Vermont 

Conn. 

do 

Vermont 

Conn. 


1836 
1836 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1833 
1834 
1836 
1834 
1S36 
1836 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1835 
1832 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1830 
1833 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1833 
1831 
1831 
1832 
1831 
1833 


Chicago. 
Dead. 


Sattonstall, William 


Chicago. 

Alderman 1845 ; Hyde Park, HI. 

Dead 




Shapley, Morgan L., 

Sherman, F. C 


Meridan, Texas. 
Mayor 1841. 
Mayor 1844. 
Sheriff 1834 and 1838. 


Sherman, Alanson S 

Sherman, Silas W., 




Riverside, 111. 








A TJ. S General of the Rebellion. 




Waukegan, 111. 

Candidate for Sheriff 1837 ■ dead. 




England 
New York 








Dead. 




Ohio 

Vermont 

New Jersey 


Dead 




Judge 1851 ; Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Delegate to draw up City Charter. 

Member of first Engine Company. 

Chicago. 

Died July 23, 1875. 

Dead. 


Smith, Dr. D. S., 

Smith, Judge T. W., 






Smith, Charles B.,„ 

Smith, James A 


New York 

do 

Mass. 

Scotland 


Smith, J. F., 


Smith, Jeremiah, 


Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
Dead 


Smith. William 




Shedaker, Christopher, 

Stowell, Walter 




Smith, E. K., 




Manager first Chicago Ball 1834. 
First County Clerk 1831. 


See, William, 


Virginia 
Vermont 
Ireland 

Conn. 

Mass. 

Penn. 

do 

New York 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

Tenn. 

New York 

Germany 

New York 


Snow, George W 


1832 
1836 
1834 
1836 
1833 
1834 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1835 
1835 
1835 

ias6 

1835 
1832 
1831 
1834 
1826 
1826 
1826 
1835 
1832 
1835 
1832 
1835 
1833 
1834 
1833 
1833 
1832 
1833 
1833 
1832 
1831 
1831 
1830 
1831 


Snowhook.W. B., 


Collector of the Port 


Spalding, S. F _ 


Member of first Engine Company. 
Died 1879 


Spring, Giles 


Died 1851 


Spence, John 

Spence, James, 

Sexton, Sylvester, 


Dead. 
Dead. 
Alderman 1855 ; dead. 


Stearns, M. C, 


Chicago. 
Chicago. 
Alderman 1839 ; Chicago. 


Steele, James W., 


Stowe, W. H 


Stowe, H. M., 


Stewart, Hart L., 


Post Master 1846. 


Stuart, Dr. John J 

Stone, H. 


Died 1849. 
Died 1879. 
U. S. Land Office. 
Sheriff 1840 


Strode, James M 


Steele, Ashbel, 


Stoce, Clemens, 




Stuart, William, 


Editor first daily paper in Chicago. 


Sweet, Alanson, 


Sweet, R. M 


New York 

Ireland 
New York 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
Virginia 

Conn. 
New York 


Member Old Settlers Society 1856. 
Chicago. 
Chicago, 111. 
Naperville, HI. 


Sweenev, John, 


Seott, Willis, 


Scott, Willard, 


Scott, Stephen S 


Short, Hugh, 


Died in Milwaukee. 

Police Commissioner ; died 1878. 

Supt. I. and M. Canal ; Chicago. 


Talcott, Mancel, Jr., 

Talcott, Edward B., 


Talcott, Mancel, Sr., 


Taylor, Edmund D., 


Mendota, 111. 


Tavlor, Solomon, 


Taylor, W. W., 


Chicago. 


Taylor, Abner, 


Taylor, Deodat A., 

Taylor, Anson H., 


Conn, 
do 
do 
do 


Alderman 1853 ; Chicago. 
Died May 9, 1S78. 

Alderman 1837 ; Niles, Mich. 

Judge of Election 1837. 

Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 

Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 

Dead. 

Dead. 


Tavlor, Henrv 

Tavlor, Francis H., 


Tavlor, Charles H., 


Taylor, A. W., 


Thompson, Rober.,, 




Thompson, Enoch, 




Tuttle, James B., 





432 



List of Old Settlers. 




Tallev, A.M 

Temple, Dr. John T.,. 

Temple. Dr. Peter 

Thompson, Oliver H., 

Trowbridge, S. G., 

Tripp, Robinson 

Tuttle, Nelson 

Tuttle, Lncius G 

Tuttle, Fredrick 

Tucker, Thomas E.,... 

Tucker, Henry, 

Turner, John 

Towner, Norman K.,. 

Updike, Peter L 

Underwood. J. Iff 

Vanderbogart, Henry 
Vaughan. Daniel V,*... 

Vial, Robert 

Vial, Samuel 

Vincent. Akin, 
Walker, Rev. Jesse 
Walkins, Samuel, 
Ward. Bernard 
Wattles, W. W 

Watkins, Thomas 

Walker, J. H 

Walker, Charles, 

Walker. C. H 

Wadhams. Seth 

Wadsworth, Julius,.... 

Wadsworth. E. S., 

Wayman, Samuel 

Watkins, John, 

Warner, Seth P , 

Wayman, William,.... 

Wellmaker, John , 

Wentworth, Elijah,.... 
Wentworth, Elijah, Jr 

Wentworth, John, 

Weir, John B , 

Weir. George E., 

Welch, Patrick, 

Welch. Michael 

Wheeler, Russell, 

Wheeler. A. B., 

White. George 

Whitehead. Henrv 

Whitlock, Thomas,.... 

Whitlock, Charles 

Whistler, Mermwather L., 
Whipple, Henry R.,..., 
Wheeler. Dr. Tolman, 



S. C. 



Vermont 



Vermont 
New York 

do 

do 



New Jersey 
Mass. 



Wicker, Joel H.. 

Wicker, Charles G., 

Williams, Eli B 

Wellington, E. F 

Wilson, John L., 

Wilson, Richard L., 

Wilson. Charles L., 

Windett, Arthur W., 

Winship. James 

Woolley, Jedidah 

Wolcott. Alexander 

Worthington. Daniel 

Worthingham, William, 
Woodworth, James H.... 
Wright, John 

Wright, John S., 

Wri?ht, Timothy, 

Wright, Walter, 

Wright, Truman G 



Vermont 

New York 

do 

Conn. 

do 

do 

England 



New York 
England 
Germany 



N. H. 
N.S. 

do 

Ireland 

do 



New York 



England 



Illinois 

New York 

Vermont 

New York 

do 

Conn. 

New York 

do 

do 

England 

New York 

Conn. 
Vermont 



New York 
Mass. 

do 

do 
do 

Vermont 



1835 
1833 
1S30 
1S35 
1834 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1S35 



1835 
1835 
18:34 
1831 
1834 
1834 
1835 
1826 
1830 
1836 
1832 
1835 
1836 
1835 
1835 
1835 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1S32 
1836 
1834 
1830 
1831 
1S31 
1836 
1836 
1836 
1833 
1829 
1834 
1S36 
1834 
1S33 
1835 
1835 
1805 
1836 
1831 
1836 
18:36 
1835 
1835 
1834 
1834 
1835 
1S36 
1836 
1831 
18:34 
1836 
1836 
1833 
1832 

1832 

1833 
1833 

1834 



Foreman Democrat Office. 

Died in St. Louis 1879. 

Lexington, Mo. 

Alderman 1839 ; dead. 

County Trecisurer 1836. 

Chicago. 

Dead. 

Died July 15, 1879. 

Chicago. 

Cooper; dead. 

Dead. 

Ravenswood. 111. 

Ypsilanti. Mich. 

Town Trustee 1836 ; dead. 

Massachusetts. 

Public School Teacher ; dead. 

Dead. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Died October 4, 1835. 

Dead. 

Alderman 1837. 

Tavern Keeper. 

First Post Office Clerk. 

Dead. 

Dead. 

Louisiana. 

Elmhurst, 111. 

New York City. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Voted in 1833 ; Joliet, HI. 

Austin, HI. 

Alderman 1854 ; Chicago. 

Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 

Dead. 

Second Coroner 1832 ; died 1875. 

Ex-Member of Congress and Mayor. 

Dead. 

Chicago. 

Dead. 

First Irishman in Chicago. 

Milwaukee. 

Dead. 

City Crier. 

Chicago. 

Dead. 

Dead. 

First white male child born in Ft. Dearborn. 

Died 1SS0. 

Chicago. 

Michigan. 

Dakota. 

President Town Trustees 1836 ; Chicago. 

Sheriffl856; Chicago. 

Post Master 1850 ; dead. 

Secretary of Legation, London, 1861; dead. 

Law Student; Chicago. 

Baker; dead. 

First County Surveyor. 

County Surveyor. 

Chicago. 

Fire Warden 1836 ; Chicago. 

Mavor and Member of Congress. 

Elder First Presbyterian Church 1833; dead. 

| Founder Prairie" Farmer Newspaper ; died 

\ September 26, 1874. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

Dead. 

(Fire Warden 1834; Town Trustee 1836; 

\ Racine, Wis. 



List of Old Settlers. 



433 



NAMES. 


NATIVITY. 


YEAR. 


REMARKS. 








Member First Baptist Church 1833. 






1836 
1835 
1&33 
1834 
1833 
1834 
1833 
1836 
1836 
1831 
1836 
1832 
1832 
1836 
1836 
1834 
1832 


Editor Prairie Farmer Newspaper. 




Ireland 


Dead. 




Member First Methodist Church 1833. 




New York 
Mass. 


Member first Board of Education 1837. 




Paymaster United States Army ; dead. 

Member first Engine Company 1835. 

Assistant Indian Agent. 

Director Chicago Hydraulic Company. 

Dead. 
















Walker, James 




County Commissioner 1832. 






Chicago. 

Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 
Died at Newark, 111. 


Wade, David, 




Walker, George H., 




Walker, Willson West 

Wiggin, William 


Vermont 






Member of first Engine Company 1835. 
Member Chicago Co. Black Hawk war. 


Zarley, J. W., 





Note.— Col. A. S. Hubbard, who prepared the foregoing list, was fully qualified for the la- 
borious work, having been born and raised in Cook County, and a citizen-youth of Chicago 
just at the time when his early memory could retain the acquaintances and associations 
necessary to the work. Added to his own store of information, he has been assisted in his 
work by Albert D. Hager, Secretary of the Chicago Historical Society, who has furnished 
him with all the records of the Society, among which are Prof. Colbert's Historical and 
Statistical Sketch of Chicago 1868 ; the records of the Old Settlers' Society of 1855-6, and of 
the Calumet Club. Personal interviews with old settlers, too numerous to mention, have 
also been of essential service to him. 

In a few instances, names have been put in of persons whose time of arrival was uncer- 
tain, while such settlers as came to the place previous to 1831, who have been spoken of in 
the history, have been left out. Any errors in the list or omissions may be corrected, and 
reports of them will be gratefully received for insertion in future editions of the work. 
They may be sent to Col. A. S. Hubbard, 184 West Monroe Street, Chicago.— [Author. 



CHICAGO CHARTEKED AS A CITY. 



FIRST MAYOK ELECTED. 

The year 1836 had been one of remarkable prosperity to the lit- 
tle village of Chicago. Its population had grown to the astonish- 
ing number of 3820 (as estimated), from a beginning of about 
200 persons in 1833. Work on the canal had actually been 
begun and the harbor was in process of improvement, at 
the expense of the general government. Land specula- 
tors were rapidly buying up the lands, and that system of 
real estate speculation, which has since this period presented 
such fascinations to the speculative capitalists of the country, 
was now inaugurated. Under these auspicious beginnings, on 
the 26th of October the town board took the necessary steps 
to take upon themselves the forms of a city. The president of 
the board of trustees invited the inhabitants of each of the three 
districts of which the town was composed, to select delegates to 
meet the board, to confer together on the expediency of apply- 
ing to the legislature for a city charter. The meeting had place 
on the 25th of November, and resulted in the appointment, by 
Eli B. Williams, the President of the board, of five delegates to 
draw up the charter in form for presentation. Their names 
were Ebenezer Peck, J. D. Caton, T. W. Smith, Wm. B. Ogden, 
and Nathan H. Bolles. On December 9th, this committee, 
through Mr. Peck, presented their charter to the board, and after 
some amendments it was adopted, and on the fourth of March, 
the next year, 1837, the legislature of Illinois passed the bill 
approving the charter, and Chicago took upon herself the forms 
of a city. The next move was to choose a mayor. The material 
for an able one was not wanting, but from its very excess the 
difficulty in making a choice was increased. Happily there 
were no spoils at stake and no rings to covet them. 

(434) 



Charter Election. 435 

The issue was defined by the two political parties which 
then divided the country on political economy. The whig party 
represented one and the Democratic party the other. And 
here it may be pertinent to say that the separate policies of the 
two parties could not be accurately defined in theory so as to be 
well understood at this day, but practically the Whigs repre- 
sented a policy which embraced a liberal system of banking, pro- 
tective tariffs, and an extensive system of public works, while 
the Democrats did not oppose this entirely, but professed to 
guard against excesses in their propagation. The most of them 
went for a metalic currency only, or paper convertible at the 
will of the holder. John H. Kinzie was the Whig candidate for 
mayor, and Wm. B. Ogden the Democratic. Says Hon. 
John Wentworth: " Both were members of the old St. James 
Episcopal Church, both men of wealth for that time, and 
there was nothing in the character of either of the men to give 
either one any advantage over the other. It was a fair stand-up 
fight between the Whigs and Democrats. Men of each political 
party wanted the city government to stand under its peculiar aus- 
pices." The contest was sharp and spirited, and great care was 
taken to provide against illegal voting. Young Wentworth was 
challenged on the grounds of his youth, and was sworn before be- 
ing allowed to vote — a suspicion of the truth of which charge, 
he humorously says, he has since outgrown. 

Mr. Ogden received 469 votes and Mr. Kinzie 237, showing a 
large majority of the citizens of Chicago to be in favor of the 
democratic policy of the country, at which time, it is not too 
much to say, we were almost at a loss for any very vital issue. 
The total vote of the south division was 408, the north 204, and 
the west 97, and of the whole citv 709. 



ENLARGEMENT OF CHICAGO BY WARDS AND CITY LIMITS. 

BY JOHN A. MOODY, CHIEF CLERK IN CITY CLERK'S OFFICE. 

^ In 1835, John H. Kinzie, Gurdon S. Hubbard, Ebenezer Good- 
rich, John K. Boyerand John S. C. Hogan were constituted by 
the legislature of Illinois a body politic and corporate to be 
known by the name of the "Trustees of the Town of Chicago." 
The jurisdiction of the town extended over all that district con- 
tained in sections nine and sixteen, north and south fractional 
section ten and fractional section fifteen, in township 39, E". R 
14 E. of the 3rd P. M., except that portion of fractional section 
ten occupied by the United States, for military purposes. The 
act creating the town provided that the corporate powers and 



436 Wards — City Limits. 

duties should be vested in a board of nine trustees, after the first 
Monday of June, A. D. 1835, on which date the term of office of 
the above named gentlemen expired. In the year following, the 
system of water works of Chicago was instituted by the act in- 
corporating the Chicago Hydraulic Company. 

Two years after the incorporation of the town, on the 4th of 
March, 1837, the legislature enacted that "the district of coun- 
try known as the east half of the southeast quarter of section 
thirty-three, fractional section thirty-four, the east fourth part of 
sections six, seven, eighteen and nineteen, all in township forty; 
also fractional section three, sections four, five, eight, nine, and 
fractional section ten, excepting the southwest fractional quarter of 
said section ten, occupied as a military post, until the same shall 
become private property, fractional section fifteen, sections six- 
teen, seventeen, twenty, twenty-one, and fractional section twenty- 
two, all in township thirty-nine, range fourteen, east of the third 
P. M.; being in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, should 
be known as the city of Chicago." 

It is impossible to give the boundaries above fixed by streets. 
There is a manifest error in the copy of the act which is on file 
in the office of the city clerk. The maps show that the sections 
six, seven, eighteen and nineteen, above mentioned, are in town- 
ship thirty-nine instead of forty. 

The territory was divided into six wards; of which the 1st and 
2d were in the south, the 3d and 4th in the west, and the 5th 
and 6th in the north divisions, respectively. The government 
was vested in the mayor and twelve aldermen — two aldermen 
from each ward, except the third and fifth wards, which were en- 
titled to but one alderman each until the annual election for the 
year 1839. 

By the act of March 4, 1837, the school system of Chicago was 
first established; and by an act passed March 1, 1839, additional 
powers were granted the common council for establishing and 
maintaining schools. 

Within ten years from its incorporation, the new city felt that 
it did not contain territory enough, and that its original charter 
was insufficient for its proper government. On Feb. 16, 1847, a 
supplementary act was passed extending the limits so as to in- 
clude all the territory bounded as follows: 

Beginning at the intersection of 22d street with the lake shore, 
thence west to "Western avenue, thence north to North avenue, 
thence east to Sedgwick street, thence north to Fullerton avenue, 
thence east to the lake, thence southward on the lake shore to the 
place of beginning. 

The city was also divided into nine wards of which the 1st, 2d, 



Wards — City Limits. 437 

3rd and 4th were in the south division, the 5th and 6th in the 
west, and the 7th, 8th and 9th in the north. 

The city census taken in that year showed a population of 
16,859 persons. The valuation of the real and personal estate 
was, $5,849,170; the amount of revenue raised by taxation 
$18,159,01, and the floating liabilities $13,179,89. 

In 1851, the various acts affecting the city were reduced into 
one act, and additional powers were granted, but the bounda- 
ries of the city were not changed. 

In 1853, the city was by act of the general assembly divided into 
the divisions called north, south and west, the limits were also ex- 
tended so as to include within the citv all of sections 27, 28, 29 
and 30, T. 39, N. R. 14 E., also those parts of 31 and 32 T. 40, E. 
14, lying east of the north branch, and also the W.£ of Sec. 33, 
40, 14. 

This extension made 31st street the southern boundary, "Western 
avenue from 31st street to North avenue and the north branch 
from North avenue to Fullerton avenue the western boundaries, 
and North avenue and Fullerton avenue the northern boundaries. 

The jurisdiction of the city was also extended over so much of 
the shore and bed of the lake as lie within one mile east of frac- 
tional section 27. 

The number of the wards was not changed, the added territory 
being annexed to the 1st, 2d, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th wards. 

The city census taken in 1853, showed a population of 60,652. 
The valuation was $16,841,831.00, and the bonded debt, $189,670. 

In 1855 the sewerage system of Chicago was inaugurated by 
the creation of a board of sewerage commissioners, with such 
powers and duties as were deemed necessary to carry into effect its 
objects. 

The amended city charter, approved Feb. 15, 1857, provided for 
the creation of an additional ward, the tenth, out of the territory 
in the West Division. 

By the revised charter of 1863, the city limits were extended so as 
to include all of township 39, north range 14 east of the 3rd P. M., 
and all of sections 31, 32, 33 and fractional section 34, 40, 14, with 
so much of the waters and bed of Lake Michigan as lie within 
one mile of the shore, and east of the territory aforesaid. The 
street boundaries were Egan avenue (39th street) on the south, 
Western avenue on the west and Fullerton avenue on the north. 
The territory was divided into sixteen wards of which the 1st to 
the 5th inclusive were in the south, the 6th to the 12th inclusive 
in the west and the four remaining in the north division. Again, 
in 1869, the general assembly extended the city limits on the 
west so as to include within it the territory lying north of the II- 



438 Wards — City Limits. 

linois & Michigan Canal, east of Crawford avenue and south of 
North avenue. The same act divided the city into twenty wards, 
of which six were located in the South Division, nine in the West 
Division and five in the North Division. The city then contain- 
ed an area of at least thirty-five square miles with a population 
of 306,605 persons, an assessed valuation of $275,986,550.00 and 
a bonded indebtedness of over $11,000,000.00. 

In 1870 it levied a tax of $4,139,798.70. In 1837 the tax levy 
was $5,905.15. 

Since 1869 there has been no territory added to the city. 

In 1875 the question whether the city should reorganize under 
the general incorporation act, was submitted to a vote of the 
people, and was adopted by a vote of 11,714 for, to 10,281 
against. 

Lest this vote may be taken as an indication of the number of 
voters in the city at that time, I desire to state here that at the 
last preceding general election for mayor, 47,390 votes were cast. 

Under the provisions of the general incorporation law, the 
council divided the city into eighteen wards — live in the South 
Division, nine in the West Division, and four in the North Di- 
vision. 

By virtue of various amendments to the charter, the city gov- 
ernment was, at the time of reorganization, in the hands of many 
irresponsible boards. 

Under powers given by the new incorporation law, these boards 
were all abolished, and the departments governed by them re- 
established on ordinances passed by the city council. The ma- 
chinery of the city government is now more simple and less ex- 
pensive, considering the vastly greater business entrusted to it, 
than under any of the older charters. The mayor and aldermen 
practically control the entire city government. 

The taxation per capita in 1837 was about 1.41; in 1847 about 
1.08; in 1857 about 6.73; in 1867 about 12.59; in 1877 about 
9.83. The highest rate was in 1873, which was about 15.27. 



OFFICIAL RECORD OF FORT DEARBORN, 

TAKEN FROM THE RECORDS OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT AT WASHINGTON, BY 
HON. THOS. B. BRYAN. 



FORT DEARBORN, ILL. 

Situated at Chicago, III, within a few yards of Lake Michigan; 
Lat. 41° 51' N.j Lon. 87° 15' W. 

Post established by the U. S. forces in 1804. Aug. 15, 1812, 
the garrison, under the command of Captain Nathan Heald, 1st 
U. S. Infantry, composed of 54 regular infantry, 12 militia-men, 
and 1 interpreter, was attacked by the Indians, and evacuated 
same day. The Indians numbered between 400 and 500, of 
whom 15 were reported killed. The killed of the garrison were 
Ensign Geo. Rowan,' 55 ' 1st Inf., Doctor J. Y. YanVoorhis,f Capt. 
Wells, interpreter, 24 enlisted men IT. S. Inf., and 12 militia- 
men; 2 women and 12 children were also killed. The wounded 
were Capt. Nathan Heald and Mrs. Heald. None others re- 
ported. The next day, Aug. 16, 1812, it was destroyed by the 
Indians. Re-occupied about June, 1816, Captain Hezekiah Brad- 
ley, 3d Infantry, commanding. The troops continued in occupa- 
tion until October, 1823, when it was evacuated, and the post 
left in charge of the Indian Agent, and was re-occupied Oct. 3d, 
1828. Capt. Hezekiah Bradley, 3d Inf., commanded the post 
from June, 1816, to May, 1817; Bvt. Maj. D. Baker, 3d Inf., 
to June, 1820; Capt. Hezekiah Bradley, 3d Inf., to Jan'y, 1821; 
Maj. Alex. Cumminsrs, 3d Inf., to Oct., 1821; Lt. Col. J. McNeal* 
3d Inf., to July, 1823; Capt. John Greene, 3d Inf., to Oct., 1823. 
Post not garrisoned from Oct., 1823, to Oct., 1828. 

* His name is spelled Ron an in Wabun. 

t Spelled Voorbees in Wabun. 

According to the above official record the attack preceded the evacuation. 
This was a mistake, according 1 to the account of every eye witness who has 
written its history, of whom there are several. — Author. 

The following item is from Wm. Hickling, Esq : 

"At this present time there is standing, fronting on State, near the N. E. 
corner of 33d street, what appears to be a two-story frame house; the body of 
this edifice is made of hewn timber which formerly formed a part of the officers' 
quarters of Fort Dearborn (erected in 1816). Many years ago, the late Judge 
Henry Fuller removed this building from its old site, on the Fort reservation, to 
its present locality; then modernized it by covering with siding and a new shin- 
gle roof. In another building erected by Judge Fuller, No. 872 Michigan ave- 
nue, may be found an oaken window-frame inserted in the kitchen part of said 
building; this venerable relic was also removed from the "officers' quarters" 
of the old Fort, after having done duty there for some thirty years. It seems 
that the judge had a great liking for these old Fort Dearborn buildings, for he 
removed a portion of another log building belonging to the old Fort, converting 
the same into a stable on the rear of his property, No. 872 Michigan avenue. 
This old relic of the Fort he afterwards sold, and I understand the purchaser 
broke up the old timbers for firewood." 

(439) 



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Last of Fort Dearborn, 441 

The following letter, from Mr.E. J. Bennett, is inserted as the 
most authoritative and best history of the last years of Fort 
Dearborn, which has yet been made public. 

Chicago, May 11, 1880. 
Kufus Blanchaed, 

Dear Sir: — In reply to your inquiries concerning Fort Dear- 
born, I am pleased to say the little I can, to give a more definite 
idea of Chicago's oldest landmark. The " Old Fort," burned at 
time of the massacre, belonged to an age preceding Chicago, 
while the defense, erected at a later date on the same site, was 
known to many still living, and properly belongs to the Chicago 
that has grown during the last fifty years, because it stood till the 
tide of improvements and the demands of a growing commerce 
crowded upon it, and until its last remnant went down in the 
great fire of 1871. 

In July, 1836, my father came to Chicago, became acquainted 
with it and helped in laying the State road from this place to 
Galena during that summer. In March, 1844, I came w T ith my 
father's family from the East, and spent my first two weeks in this 
State, in the house of the keeper of the Government light. 
This house stood about where the south abutment of Rush street 
bridge now stands. So, from my early association, I felt inter- 
ested in this historical spot. After the great fire, business located 
me within a hundred feet of the spot w T here the house stood in 
which I first lived in this State, and directly upon the " site of 
Fort Dearborn." This close association of my business with a 
spot so historical and so closely allied to me by the present and 
the past, led to the production of two pictures* — one representing 
the fort as it was from 1844 till after 1850, and the other as it 
appeared after the stockade, and most of the buildings had been 
removed and naught but the " Block House" of the fort and the 
light-house and light keeper's house remained. In the product- 
ion of those pictures, I followed such sketches as could be found, 
after verification by scores who had known the fort at an earl}' 
day, and had pronounced the material used reliable. In describ- 
ing the place, I can do no better than to use the language of Miss 
Augusta Meachain, in reply to my inquiries upon this subject. 

" Father kept the Government light in 1842, '3 and '4; I think 
previous to that for a year or two, he was superintendent of all 

*The two, pictures referred to by Mr. Bennett are both landscape drawings 
of the fort, river, and light- house, not differing essentially, as far as the block- 
house, officers ' quarters, etc., are concerned, from the view here presented. 
They are now in possession of Mr. Hoyt. — Author. 



4:42 Fort Dearborn. 

lights on Lake Michigan. The light-house was a stone structure, 
kept white by lime wash. The dwelling house stood perhaps 
seventy-five feet east and north of the lighthouse. The old fort 
was east and just across a rather narrow street or road from it. 
(This corresponds about to our present River street.) It was west 
of Michigan avenue; at that time, the avenue did not come to 
the river, but came to an end just south of the fort." 

The fort stood on a sand mound, some twenty feet above the 
river, and occupied a tract bounded by a line running along about 
River street to near the center of the river as it now is, and east 
say one hundred and fifty feet east of Michigan avenue to the 
lake beach, thence south, say a like distance, south of the present 
intersection of Michigan avenue and River street, thence west to 
the place of beginning. The inclosure was a stockade formed by 
setting logs upright, and close together, the lower end bedded in 
the earth and the upper sharpened like pickets or pikes. Within 
this inclosure and near the stockade was arrayed the barracks and 
the officers' quarters; they were built of hewn logs. Within 
these and to the south side of the inclosure was the parade 
ground. In 1857 Mr. A. J. Cross, now connected with the C. E. 
& Q. R. R., but then in the employ of the city, tore down the 
fort aud lighthouse and leveled the mound bv carting: the sand to 
fill Randolph street to grade. One of the buildings was moved 
but still within the site of the fort (about the center of the store now 
owned by W. M. Hoyt, and occupied by the firm of which he is 
the head). That building stood till the fire of 1871 destroyed it, 
and thus removed the last of Fort Dearborn. A few weeks be- 
fore that fire I visited that building with my father, and he, lay- 
ing his hands on one of its corners, said, "This is one of the 
buildings of the old fort as I saw it in 1836." 

War has given way to Peace, defense to aggressive prosperity, 
but may prosperity never smother our interest in early Chicago 
and Fort Dearborn.* 

Yours Respectfully, 

R. J. Bennett. 

*The view of the Fort here presented was from the immediate vicinity of the 
light-house spoken of in Mr. Bennett's letter; hence the light-house, light keeper's 
house and river, do not appear, as the spectator is looking* away from these 
objects. I he large, honey locust tree, appearing in the right back-ground, will be 
remembered by many of our old citizens. It stood on the west side of Michigan 
Avenue, so near the street that one needed to stoop in passing on the side-wa.k. 
Tradition says it was planted by the daughter of Mr. John Kinzie. It stood 
till destroyed by the great fire. 



Chicago Post Office. 443 



THE CHICAGO POST OFFICE. 



Letters were first brought to Chicago by the annual arrival of 
a vessel at the fort, or by some chance traveler who came to the 
place through the wilderness, and later by government mail car- 
riers who brought the mail to the fort from Detroit, Fort 
Wayne, or St. Joseph, about once a month. These were the only 
avenues through which the the outside world could be heard from 
till 1831, up to which time no post office had been established 
and private persons were dependent on the courtesy of the com- 
mander of the fort for the receipt of letters. Jonathan X. Bailey, 
an Indian trader, was the first postmaster appointed to act here, 
and on the 31st of March, 1831, opened his office* on the east 
bank of the Chicago river, just north of the present Lake street 
bridge, in a log store, where John S. C. Hogan sat at the receipt 
of custom. The official duties of Mr. Bailey were very light, the 
mail arriving at intervals of one or two weeks, and the dozen let- 
ters and as many more newspapers it contained were quickly 
handed out to their eager expectants, when no farther work was 
necessary till another mail came. 

At the breaking out of the Black Hawk war, for some cause, 
possibly through fear of cholera, he moved with his family to St. 
Louis, and John S. C. Hogan, the proprietor of the store, who was 
his son-in-law, became his successor, Xovember 2d, 1832. There 
are yet, in 1880, a very few of the earliest settlers who retain a 
distinct recollection of receiving their letters in his scanty quar- 
ters, where his attention was divided between his official duties 
and dealing out sugar, tea or tobacco by the pound, or gaudy 
fabrics to the tawny customers who were at first his main depend- 
ence for income. In 1836 he moved his store and post office to 
the corner of Franklin and South Water street, where he held the 
position till March 3d, 1837, subsequent to which time he went 
to Memphis, where he died. His successor was Sidney Abell. 
By this time the amount of post office business had increased to 
a great extent, not only as a delivery of Chicago letters, but as a 
distributing office to points west, and the former scanty quarters 
being inadequate to the wants of increasing business, the office 
was removed to the south side of Clark street, a little south of 
Water street, and a salary of $4,000 per annum was allowed him. 
He retained the office till 1841, when President Harrison ap- 
pointed Win. Stewart as his successor — the same who was the 
editor of The Chicago American. He retained the office during 
President Tyler's administration, subsequent to which time he 
went to Binghampton, N. Y., where he died. James K. Polk 

* See Govt. Records at Washington. 



444 Chicago Post Office. 

was the next President of the United States, and Hart L. Stewart 
was his appointee for the Chicago post office during his term from 
1844 to 1848. 

Mr. Fillmore, who took the Presidential chair after the death 
of Mr. Taylor, appointed Geo. W. Dole as postmaster, who re- 
tained the position till the election of Franklin Pierce in 1852, 
who appointed Isaac Cook to the position in the spring of 1853. 
The location of the office had been removed to the north side of 
Clark street, across the alley from the Sherman house. From 
thence it was removed across the street to the south side of the 
same alley, and over it was the office of the Chicago Tribune. 
Thence it was removed to Nos. 82 and 84 Dearborn street. 

On the accession ot James Buchanan to the Presidential chair 
in 1857, ¥m. Price was appointed postmaster. He retained the 
office but a few months, when owing to the dead lock between 
Senator Douglas and the administration on the validity of the 
Lecompton constitution of Kansas, and kindred toils, it was 
deemed necessary to remove him, which was promptly done, and 
Mr. Cook, who was a friend to Buchanan's measures, was restored 
to his position, which he retained till the election of Abraham 
Lincoln in I860,* who appointed John L. Scrips, whose editor- 
ship of the Chicago Tribune is still fresh in our memories. Mr. 
Scrips, on account of ill health, declined an appointment under 
Mr. Lincoln's second term, and Samuel Hoard was appointed as 
his successor. He retained the position till President Johnson 
took the executive chair, made vacant by Mr. Lincoln's death, 
when Rob. C. Gilmore was appointed, but was accidentally 
drowned immediately afterwards, and Frank T. Sherman was ap- 
pointed to fill the place during Mr. Johnson's term. On the acces- 
sion of General Grant to the Presidency in 1869, Francis A. 
Eastman was appointed to the place. He resigned in 1873, and 
Gen. John McArthur was appointed by Gen. Grant to the place, 
who took possession of the office February 14th, and held it till 
March 10th, 1877, at which time Hon. F. W. Palmer, the 
present incumbent, was appointed to the position by President 
Hayes. 

At the great fire of 1871 it is worthy of remark that while 
nearly all private property in the burnt district was destroyed, 
the mail was all saved by dint of hard work, not exempt from 

*Previous to this time Hon. JohnWentworth, when representative to Congress 
in 1853, had obtained at the first session of the thirty-third Congress in the civil 
and diplomatic appropriation bill, approved August 4th, 1854, the first appro- 
priation for the Chicago post office in the following words: " For the accommo- 
tion of the custom house, post office. United States courts, and steamboat in- 
spectors, a building ot stone 85x60 feet, 60 feet in height from the foundation, to 
cost not more than $88,000." And it is worthy of mention that this is the 
only building whose walls survived the great fire of 1871. 



Illinois and Michigan Canal. 445 

danger to the employes of the departments. It was established 
on the northwest corner of State and 16th streets, from whence, 
after two months, it was removed to the Wabash Avenue Meth- 
odist Church, corner of Harrison street, where it remained till 
the tire of 1874, when it again fled before the devouring element 
— saving all the mail — establishing itself at the postal station, 
corner of Washington and Halstead streets in the West Division, 
and no interruption was caused by this lire in the delivery of 
letters. These quarters were retained about a month, when the 
office was established in the Honore building, corner of Dearborn 
and Adams streets, where it remained till fire again invaded their 
quarters, Jan. 4th, 1879, when they, with all the mail saved, took 
night to the northeast corner of Washington and State streets, in 
the basement of the Singer building, where it remained till April 
12th, 1879, at which time the office was established at its present 
locality in the Government building, occupying the square be- 
tween Adams, Jackson, Clark and Dearborn streets. 

The expenses of the office in 1836 were §300, and its commis- 
sions the same year were §2,14S.29. Ten years later, in 1846, the 
expenses were §5,234.39, while the expenses were 87,228.51. 
Ten years later, in 1856, the expenses were §41,130.56, and the 
expenses, §65,804.41. 

Since the lire, beginning with 1872, the total amount of money- 
order transactions received and paid out have been as follows: 
For 1872, §7,937.751.20; 1873, §10,632,069.08; 1874, §14,507,- 
431.83; 1875,814.741,446.65; 1S76, §12,930,S24.88; 1877, §13,- 
157,0S5.33; 1878, §15,598,765.14; 1879, §16,892,975.92. The 
sale of stamps, stamped envelopes and postal cards for the same 
period has been, 1872, §715,010.27; 1S73, when postal cards 
were first introduced, §788,006.29; 1S74, §840,388.48; 1875, 
§970,SS6.47; 1876, §955,417.70; 1877, §953,148.08; 1878, §1,006,- 
352.10; 1879, §1,074,237.62. 



THE ILLINOIS -AND MICHIGAN CANAL. 

Immediately after the Peace of Paris, in 17S3, the Ohio Eiver 
began to be utilized as a throughfare by which the Americans 
began their pioneer advances into the great West for settlements. 
The lakes, as a channel of communication to reach it, were not 
then thought of, nor could they have been traversed for this pur- 
pose if they had, for the British held possession of the whole 
northern frontier till 1796, as already stated in foregoing pages. 
These conditions gave the countries along the waters of the Mis- 
sissippi and its tributaries a great advantage over the borders of 
the northern lakes in the start, and even as late as 1850 the su- 



446 Illinois and Michigan Canal. 

periority of the Ohio Biver and the Mississippi as far northward 
as St. Louis, over the lakes as stimulators to the growth of cities, 
was demonstrated by the vigorous growth of Cincinnati, Louis- 
ville and St. Louis, while Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Chi- 
cago were far behind them, with no hope, unless it were appar- 
ently a visionary one of ever reaching them in numbers and 
wealth. 

That this popular decision has been overruled by a fair rival- 
ship between the two local interests, is due first, to the stimulus 
imparted to Chicago by the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and con- 
tingent upon it, the matchless railroad system which centers at 
the place. As early as 1822, Congress, with intelligent forecast, 
granted to the State of Illinois, the right of way across the public 
lands from Chicago to LaSalle for the location of this canal, hav- 
ing the year before obtained a strip of land by treat} 7 from the 
Indians for this purpose, as already told in preceding pages. 

A belt of land ninety feet wide on each side of the canal for its 
use, was at the same time donated by Congress to the State of 
Illinois. In 1827, through the efforts of Daniel P. Cook, in the 
House of Representatives, and Senators Kane and Thomas in the 
Senate, alternate sections of land five miles wide on each side of 
the canal were donated to the State of Illinois by the United 
States, the proceeds from the sale of which were to be applied to 
the construction of the canal by which the waters of Lake Michi- 
gan should be connected for navigable purposes with the Illinois 
river.* 

Win. F. Thornton, Gurdon S. Hubbard and Wm. B. Archer, 
were appointed Canal Commissioners, with power to locate its 
route, and then proceed to the execution of the work. The first 
thing to be done was to survey the route; and to further this pur- 
pose, the commisioners had a meeting at Yandalia, and appointed 
Wm. Gooding as chief engineer; but as lie could not commence 
work at once, it was agreed that Mr. Hubbard should employ 
some other one to act in his place till he could assume its respon- 
sibilities. Accordingly, Mr. Hubbard returned to Chicago and 
engaged the services of Mr. E. B. Talcott, who, with a force of 
engineers under his direction, commenced the survey at once; 
and by the first of May, 1836, Mr. Hubbard, with his assistance, 
was able to present complete plans for the work to Gov. Duncan 
for approval. Two plans were presented; one for the canal as it 
now is. and one of less dimensions. The former was decided on, 

*As a condition of this donation, it was stipulated that government goods or 
troops were forever to be transported on the canal free of toll; and a few 
months after it was finished, troops and munitions for the Mexican war were 
transported free, agreeable to the conditions, thereby giving the work a national 
character. 

H. M. Singer, then Sup't of Repairs. 



Illinois and Michigan Canal. 447 

after several meetings of the full board, and to Mr. Hubbard and 
Mr. Talcott belongs the credit of first making it. The following 
month (June), contractors were advertised for; and the next month 
(July), on the 4th, the ceremony of turning the first sod was duly 
celebrated in the usual unctious spirit of Chigago citizens. Work 
commenced immediately thereafter, and under the administration 
of the board was pushed as rapidly as their means from the sale 
of lands would admit. 

Up to January, 1839, there had been expended one million four 
hundred thousand dollars. The State then became embarrassed 
and matters grew worse until 1841, pending which time the State 
Bank of Illinois having failed, the State itself could not pay the 
interest on her bonds, and repudiation seemed inevitable. As a 
consequence, the progress of her extended system of public works, 
including the canal, was suddenly arrested. 

A quiescent period in Chicago's ambition succeeded this un- 
toward event; but in the fall of 1842, the following gentlemen 
met in council to devise some plan by which to complete the 
canal and reap the expected benefits from it, which had, as yet, 
only been in anticipation: Arthur Bronson, of New York, 
Wm. B. Ogden, Justin Butterfield and Isaac N. Arnold, of 
Chicago, constituted this council, who, it is not too much to say, 
had the whole northern part of the State at their backs, besides 
the bondholders of the State itself. At this meeting Mr. Bron- 
son suggested a plan for completing the canal, and making it a 
source of revenue instead of a disgraceful wreck of fortune, as it 
now threatened to prove unless prompt action was taken to im- 
part new life into it. 

The proposition was to offer to the bondholders the canal and 
its revenues when finished, including its landed equities as secur- 
ities for additional advances to finish it. The plan was timely 
and simple, and only required the sanction of the State; the bond- 
holders being willing to make the necessary advances under an 
assurance that they should control the proceeds of the canal and 
its immunities till they were paid, and Mr. Butterfield drew up 
the necessary bill to be submitted to the Legislature to bring the 
scheme into elfect. Simple and politic as it was, it must be can- 
vassed by public opinion before the Legislature would act on it; 
and to bring it understandingly before it, Mr. Arnold addressed 
the people of Chicago, explaining its features, and Mr. Went- 
worth, through the columns of The Democrat, advocated its feas- 
ibility and necessity, and Michael Ryan, a State Senator from 
LaSalle county, also advocated the measure. When the bill came 
before the Legislature, Mr. Arnold was one of its members, and 
as chairman of the Committee on Finance, had charge of the bill 
in the house. The influence of Thos. Ford, the Governor, hap- 



44:8 Illinois and Michigan Canal. 

pily was in favor of it. If it had not have been, it would not 
have passed, for the opposition in the southern part of the State, 
particularly along the Wabash River, was strong against it, and 
it was by but a slender majority that this important measure be- 
came a law; amended by some prudential modifications, among 
which was a provision for the appointment of two trustees by the 
bondholders and one by the Governor, whose business it was to 
see that all moneys received should be applied to the completion 
of the work and faithful execution of the trust confided to the 
bondholders. Capt. Win. H. Swift, late of the U. S. Army, and 
David Leavitt, President of The Am. Ex. Bank of New York, 
were appointed in behalf of the bondholders, and Jacob Fry in 
behalf of the State. 

Work was now resumed on the canal, and under the able and 
honest administration of these trustees, it was finished April 19, 
1848, and on May 1st, 1871, the last dollar of the canal debt was 
paid, and the canal itself, with its unsold lands together with 
nearly one hundred thousand dollars surplus in the treasury, was 
given up to the State. That this successful measure rescued the 
State from repudiation, was the opinion of the ablest financiers 
of that period, and that it gave the city of Chicago a solid foun- 
dation on which to lay her financial dimension stone has never 
been questioned by any one. 

But few years ago every well-informed citizen of Chicago was 
familiar with all these events, but now a new generation has 
grown up, or came to the place, to whom the whole matter is only 
a history of the past. 

The original design was to make the canal a deep cut, sufficient- 
ly below the level of Lake Michigan to enable boats to pass from 
it to the Mississippi river, by way of the Illinois.* 

That this design was not carried out at first was owing to the 
embarrassed credit of the State, as already seen, but the grand 
original conception has never yet been lost sight of by the rep- 
resentative men of national interests, and in 1862, Mr. Arnold, 
who then represented Chicago in Congress, introduced a bill to 
fulfill it. His bill was substantially a proposition to the general 
government, to aid the State of Illinois in completing the work. 
It was referred to a committee on military affairs, of which Francis 
P. Blair was chairman, which reported unanimously in its favor. 

* With this end in view, the deep cut was originally made part way through 
the lime rock which underlaid the surface of the summit, but was abandoned 
as too expensive. The relinquishment of this plan made it necessary to supply 
the canal from the Calumet River, instead of Lake Michigan, which was done 
by means of a dam and feeders. During low water this stream was insufficient, 
and a steam-pump was then resorted to, to supply water from the south branch 
of the Chicago River. 



Illinois and Michigan Canal. 449 

The next year, on June 2nd, 1863, a great convention was held 
in Chicago, to bring this important measure which had now 
assumed national proportions prominently before the public. 
The call was signed by Edward Bates, Attorney-general of the 
United States, and ninety-four members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. The rebellion was then raging in its as yet unbroken 
power. The Mississippi river was blockaded, and how to break 
through the net work of rebel batteries that frowned upon its 
channel, was an unsolved problem. In this extremity it was argued 
that if the waters of the great lakes were connected with those 
of the Mississippi so as to afford a passage for gunboats, such a 
facility for concentrating force into the heart of the south would 
give the north a great advantage. Thatthew T antof this connect- 
ing link in navigating the interior was sensibly felt at this time, 
is evident from the large attendance at the Chicago convention, 
the number there from other States than Illinois, being estimated 
at 5,000. Among them was Hannibal Hamlin, who at the after- 
noon session of the first day, was made president of the conven- 
tion, to w T hom Hon. Chauncey Filley, Mayor of St Louis, Presi- 
dent pro tern, relinquished the position with which he had been 
honored while organizing the convention. 

On taking the chair Mr. Hamlin addressed the convention in 
his usual vein of wisdom, setting forth its objects and approving 
them. A committee was appointed, composed of men from sev- 
eral states to prepare a memorial for presentation to Congress to 
urge upon that body the necessity of the w r ork. This committee 
met in ]S T ew York the following October and prepared .the memo- 
rial in accordance with their instruction. It was presented to 
Congress during its following session and passed the House of 
Representatives, but was defeated in the Senate. Meantime, as 
the City of Chicago grew, its citizens began to cast about for 
some better means of sewerage than their slight elevation above 
the lake had yet afforded. The river was an inky pool of stag- 
nant water, with changeable hues of oily scum, floating lazily 
on its surface, and the stench arising from it, was sometimes al- 
most insupportable. The fishes had long since deserted it, and 
lest man should desert its banks something must be done to pur- 
ify the stream. The only way to do this was to produce a cur- 
rent in it, and this current could only be made by deepening the 
canal so as to make a declination through the summit, and thence 
into the valley of the Illinois river. To this end the Common 
Council of the City of Chicago, Feb. 16th, 1865, passed an Act 
to contribute two and one half millions of dollars for the purpose 
of deepening the canal, on condition that the amount expended 
should be vested in a lien upon it, and its revenues 'after the orig- 
nal canal debt should have been paid. 



450 Illinois and Michigan Canal. 

The work was promptly pushed through to completion by the 
employment of a heavy force, and in July, 1871, the entire ex- 
cavation was iinished and the waters of Lake Michigan found a 
southern outlet through the south branch of the Chicago river 
by reversing its course thence through the deepened canal into 
the Illinois river. The Chicago river through these artificial 
means became an estuary and as the waters of the Lake flowed 
through it, it became almost as pure as the source from whence 
it drew its supply. 

Soon after the Chicago fire of 1871, the State convened an ex- 
tra session of the Legislature and passed an act to refund the 
money with interest which the City of Chicago had expended in 
deepening the canal. This was done in a spirit of charity to- 
wards the city to relieve her from her then embarrassed condi- 
tion when she had so many public institutions to rebuild. 

The increased dimensions of the canal made it 60 feet wide at 
the surface, 36 feet wide on the bottom, and a depth sufficient to 
insure 6 feet of water in the canal at the lowest water. To secure 
this depth the excavation was made 6 50-100 feet below the lake 
level at lowest water. There is reported at the time of writing 
this article (April, 1880) from 6 to 8 feet of water in the canal 
from Lockport to Chicago, the depth varying according to the 
action of the wind on Lake Michigan, although the lake is now 
unusually low. Heavy winds vary the height of the lake for 
short periods, but independant of this cause there is a variation 
in the level of the lake of about 4 feet from causes not yet known. 
The lake level was established by the trustees of the canal in 
1847, from which to establish canal levels through the summit. 
This point became the base of city levels for recording the fluct- 
uations of the lake surface, and was adopted by the Sewerage 
Commissioners and the Board of Public Works as the base or 
datum of city levels. It was 11 71-100 feet below the water ta- 
ble on the southwest corner of the central building of the court 
house destroyed by the fire of 1871. 

It was also established on the Lind Block, northwest corner 
of Market and Randolph streets, which still stands as a monu- 
ment of a turning point in the greatfire, as well as an old water- 
mark. Since the fire other marks have been established at vari- 
ous places. 

The following table shows the elevation of Lake Michigan 
above or below Chicago datum from Jan. 1854 to Feb. 1880, in 
feet and hundredths. From the fact that this datum was estab- 
lished at a very low stage of the lake, almost all the records since 
are above city datum. These below are distinguished by the pre- 
fix of a hyphen. 



Illinois and Michigan Canal. 



451 



Max. 


Min. 


Mean. 




Max. 


Min. 


Mean. 


1854 




.1.83 


1867 .... 


...2.6J... 


. .0.06. . 


....1.49 


1855 3.45.... 


. .6.1*5 ... 


..1.56 


1868 


...2.58... 


...-.41.. 


....1.01 


1856' 3.05.... 


..0.42.... 


..1.60 


1869 


...2.13... 


.-1.00. . 


....1.13 


1857....- •••4.35.... 


. .0.60. . . . 


. .2.42 


1870 


...3.25... 


..0.41.. 


....2.09 


1858 4.69.... 


..1.33.... 


. .2.90 


1*71 


. . .2.80. . . 


...-.30.. 


....1.77 


1859 4.45.... 


.1.31.... 


..2.9S 


1872 


...1.80... 


...-.40.. 


....0.81 


1860 3.53.... 


..1.30.... 


. .2.54 


1873 


...2.70... 


..-.76.. 


....1.40 


1861 4.40.... 


..0.90.... 


. .2.56 


1874 


...2.80... 


. .-.20. . 


....1.67 


1862 3.30.... 


.1.20.... 


. .2.50 


1875 


...2.90... 


. .-.90. . 


....1.42 


1863 3.30.... 


..0.70.... 


..2.10 


1876 


...4.20... 


..-.10.. 


. . . .2.51 


1864 2.80.... 


..-.80.... 


..1.57 


1877 


...3.90... 


..1.10.. 


....2.31 


1865 3.66.... 


.-.40.... 


..1.30 


1878 


. . .3.30. . . 


..0.40.. 


....2.06 


1866 2.50.... 


-1.08.... 


..1.07 


1879 


...3.30... 


...-.50.. 


....1.14 



The material for the foregoing history of the canal has been ob- 
tained from Gurdon S. Hubbard, E. B. Talcott, Win. Thomas, 
superintendent of the canal, Isaac "N. Arnold, II. M. Singer and 
F. G. Saltonstall, all of whom have been officially associated 
with the canal, and are familiar with its growth from its first 
beginnings. 

The following letter from Mr. Galloway is inserted as good 
authority on the subject on which it treats, so essential to the 
utility of the canal: 

Chicago, May 21st, 1880. 
Rufus Blanch akd, 

Chicago, Ills.: 

Dear Sir: Your request that I should write you a brief note, in relation to 
the present condition of the Illinois river as a navigable stream, and what has 
been done to make it available as an outlet for the Illinois and Michigan canal, 
is cheerfully complied with. 

It is a well known fact that the settlement and cultivation of the country has 
greatly facilitated the drainage of the entire surface, and hence the magnitude 
of the floods has been increased; and in consequence of this rapid outflow, the 
streams fall much earlier in the summer than formerly, and reach a much lower 
stage than when first navigated by civilized man. Soon after the completion of 
the canal, it was discovered that, to make it meet the objects for which it had 
been constructed, it would be necessary to improve the navigation of the river 
from LaSalle to its mouth, by the construction of some five clams and steamboat 
locks. Two of these dams and locks have been completed — one at Henry, in 
Marshall county, and the other at Copperas Creek, some distance below Peoria. 
It is very desirable that the remaining three dams and locks should be built at 
the earliest practicable moment, and, if the canal is to be enlarged, to large 
steamboat capacity, the series of dams and locks upon the river should be con- 
tinued up to .'oliet, from which place to Chicago the canal should be two hun- 
dred feet in width, with not less than eight feet depth, in seasons of lowest water 
in Lake Michigan. My views in relation to the importance of this grand im- 
provement, as a military, commercial, sanitary and social element, have been 
discussed by myself and others in communications to the press of Chicago, and 
other cities, upon the canal and river. 

Very truly yours, 

A. J. Galloway. 



452 Young Metis Association. 

YOUNG MEN'S ASSOCIATION. 

In the history of all large cities, physical conditions are the 
first things to be recorded, for these are the superstructure of 
the whole. (In no disrespectful sense) they are the mud-sills of 
the edifice. 

" The foot ordained the dust to tread." 

These physical conditions are as necessary to the fulfilment of 
the ultimate aim of human amenities, as the trunk of a tree is to 
the production of fruit on its branches. Science, literature and art 
are brought into being, and human affections sharpened into ac- 
tivity by the first means used, whereby mankind may live, and 
grow, and multiply. 

That Chicago was a genial atmosphere for all this, and that 
her canal and the ambition of her early citizens, who had more to 
hope for than to lose, were an assurance of their fulfilment, has 
since been demonstrated by the growth of the higher branches 
of industry begun here, such as books, periodicals, schools and uni- 
versities, constituting the fruit that grows on such trunks as rail- 
road and warehouse interests, banking and trading interests, and 
stock, bond and money interests. These latter are the servants 
of the mind, subject to the whimsical dictation of passion ; the 
magnanimity of man's noblest nature or the self-sacrificing policy 
of the miser. 

The first population of Chicago was composed largely of young 
men, who, thanks to their inheritance, felt the need of something 
above the grade of corner lots, and to this end, as well as through a 
laudable ambition to do something for posterity, they took early 
measures to secure the means of intellectual improvement to 
themselves and others by establishing reading rooms. As early 
as 1838, the Hon. Mark Skinner, Judge Hugh T. Dickey, and 
others, were instrumental in starting a reading room; but from 
the small number of subscribers obtained it was found that the 
yearly expense to each member was ten dollars. This could not be, 
and was not long sustained, but abandoned for want of funds. 
In 1840 two other young men, Major Seth T. Otis and Dr. Sid- 
ney Sawyer, both from the city of Albany, in the State of New 
York, were foremost in advocating and discussing with the citi- 
zens a plan for a reading room and lectures at a comparatively 
trilling expense to each member, by bringing into such an asso- 
ciation all the mechanics in the city, as well as merchants and 
their clerks, and all professional men. These young gentlemen 
had belonged to such an association in Albany, and believed the 
thing could be done in Chicago on a smaller scale. Judges 
Dickey and Skinner, and William B. Ogden, and others, gave it 
their approval, and at a meeting in January, 1841, of a half a 



Young Men? 8 Association. 453 

dozen of its friends, held in the hardware store of Major Otis, it 
was decided that the effort should be made, and if one hundred 
subscribers were obtained at a tax of two dollars annually to each, 
the association should be started upon that basis. Judge Skinner 
drew up the subscription paper, and each person present signed 
it, and it was left with Major Otis to see how many subscribers 
he and other volunteers could obtain. 

Then commenced the canvass through the mud and slush of 
early Chicago. At the end of two weeks, notice was given 
through the papers that the subscribers should have a meeting. 
It took place on the 6th of February, in a building on Clark 
street near where the Sherman house now stands. Nearly every 
subscriber was present; much satisfaction was expressed, and 
cheers were raised when Mr. Otis hung across the chairman's 
desk the long subscription paper of two hundred names, and put 
a package of four hundred dollars cash into his hands as the 
result of the canvass. This was double the requirement, and all 
were jubilant, and when the chairman asked, " What is your pleas- 
ure, gentlemen," a member moved that the four hundred dollars 
cash on hand should be considered as initiation fees, etc., used in 
fitting up a room for the use of the association. It was carried 
unanimously, and a J:ax of two dollars per annum was voted to 
sustain the association, which was very properly called " The 
Young Men's Association." A constitution was adopted, and a 
time appointed for the election of officers. 

Walter Newberry was elected its first president, and in a few 
weeks a room was opened to the members in the second story of 
" Scammon's building " on the southeast corner of Lake and 
Clark streets, and the association was pronounced a success. 

In the spring of 1843 a ball was given by its managers at the 
Lake house, on the North side, for the benefit of the library fund, 
and here were gathered the true representatives of Chicago- 
promise for future advancement in the higher walks of life. The 
object was a literary one, and of course the blandishments of the 
hall lent an additional charm. Under this double incentive the 
ladies turned out in effective force, notwithstanding that the mud 
in the streets was axle deep. 

Frink and Walker's stage coaches plowed through it with 
their fair charge, and made the enterprise a social as well as util- 
itarian success. Those days were too early for the professional 
lecturer to come to Chicago, but this deficiency was satisfactorily 
supplied by home talent. Hon. Mark Skinner began the course 
with a lecture before the association on Finance and the Illinois 
School Fund; Dr. Sawyer followed on Mesmerism; Major Otis 
on True Mercantile Character; Dr. Brainard on Physiology, and 
other members of the association on subjects of interest in that 



454 Young Metis Association. 

day. Such was the beginning of The Young Men's Association, 
which subsequently took a front rank among the useful institu- 
tions of Chicago. It had 1659 members, of whom 134 were 
ladies; 157 were life, and 16 were honorary, members. The in- 
itiation fee for membership was $2.00, and the annual tax $3.00. 
The number of volumes in the library at the time of its destruc- 
tion by the great fire of 1S71 was a little short of 20,000, added 
to which were the prominent newspapers of the United States 
and England, as well as the best magazines and reviews of both 
countries. Besides these, its geological cabinet was a valuable 
feature in its treasures. Of all these, nothing, not even the 
records were saved, but from one of its members who had pre- 
served its records the writer has obtained information for the 
above. 

Mr. Otis, to whose public spirit and enterprise was chiefly due 
its first success, is still living, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Several 
other of its founders are living in Chicago, who can recall that 
early day when, while every thing was to be built anew, the 
reading room, the palladium of commerce and wealth, was planted 
in the early spring of Chicago's life, to grow with her growth, 
and strengthen with her strength. 



THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRAEY. 

BY W. F. POOLE. 

Immediately after the destruction of all the libraries of Chi- 
cago, in the great fire of October, 1871, Mr. Thomas Hughes (the 
author of "Tom Brown at Oxford") and other gentlemen in Lon- 
don, made an appeal to the authors, publishers, scientific socie- 
ties and literary institutions of Great Britain, for donations of 
books, with reference to the formation of a free public library in 
Chicago. The appeal was generously responded to, and more 
than 7,000 volumes were contributed to the English committee 
having the matter in charge. The British Museum presented 
all its publications; the University of Oxford the publications of 
the University Press, of which about 250 volumes were elegantly 
bound and were stamped with the University seal. The Com- 
missioners of Patents gave a complete set of the British Patents ; 
the Master of the Polls a set of the Chronicles and Memorials of 
Great Britain and Calendar of State Papers, and many of the most 
prominent writers in the kingdom gave their works. The rela- 
tives of deceased authors, as Lord Macaulay and Dr. Arnold of 
Bugby, donated complete sets of their writings; Her Majesty, 
the" Queen, gave "The Early Life of the Prince Consort," in- 
scribed with her autograph, and bearing this book-plate: 



Chicago Public Library. 455 

PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF CHICACO, 

Towards the formation of a free library, after the great fire of 1871, as a mark 
of English sympathy, 

BY HER MAJESTY, THE QUEEN VICTORIA. 

A similar book-plate, with the name of the donor changed, was 
placed in nearly all the gifts. There was then (December, 1871), 
no library to receive these books, and no law of the State under 
which a free public library could be organized. The Mayor, Mr. 
Joseph Medill, in response to a request of a number of citizens, 
called a public meeting to take steps for the establishment of 
such a library, which was held on tie evening of January 8, 1872, 
at which a committee was appointed to prepare for such legisla- 
tion. The Committee reported, January 20th, the draft of a free 
library law, which was enacted by the Legislature and approved 
March 7, 1872. The Common Council passed an ordinance es- 
tablishing the Chicago Public Library, which was signed by the 
Mayor April 3, 1872. The state law authorized a tax for the sup- 
port of the Library not exceeding one-fifth of one mill on the tax- 
able property of the city, which would then yield $58,000 annual- 
ly. Thomas Hoyne, S. S. Hayes, R. F. Queal, J. W. Sheahan, 
1). L. Shorey, Hermann Raster, Willard Woodard, Elliott An- 
thony, and Julius Rosenthal were, April 8, appointed the first 
Board of Directors, and Thomas Hoyne was elected President of 
the Board. The English books soon began to arrive, and tempo- 
rary accommodations for them were fitted up in the iron "Tank," 
which was attached to the temporary city building on the corner 
of Adams and LaSalle streets. Donations of books were also re- 
ceived from citizens. January 1, 1873, a reading room was opened, 
with addresses by Mayor Medill, Mr. Hoyne, the President of 
the Board, and others, and was put under the charge of the Sec- 
retary, Mr. W. B. Wickersham. In October of the same year, 
Mr. William F. Poole, formerly Librarian of the Boston Athe- 
naeum, and then in charge of the Cincinnati Public Library, was 
appointed Librarian, and he entered upon his duties January 1, 
1874. Booms for the Library were secured on the south-east cor- 
ner of Wabash avenue and Madison street, and the circulating 
department was opened to the public May 1, 1874, with 17,355 
volumes. By December 1, the collection had increased b}* the pur- 
chase of new books to 32,197 volumes, and the number of registered 
book borrowers was 16,819. The annual report in June, 1S75, 
gives the circulation of books taken out for home use as 399,156 
volumes, which was larger than that of any other library in the 
United States, except the Boston Public Library. The number 
of volumes in the Library was then 39,236. In 1876 the number 
of volumes was 49,024; in 1S77, 51,408; in 1878, 57,9S4; in 
1879, 60,426; in 1880, 68,000. 



456 Chicago Public Library. 

All residents of the city can draw books by depositing a cer- 
tificate of guaranty, signed by a responsible person, and register- 
ing their names. A guaranty is required in order to secure the 
return of books borrowed, and the observance of the rules. A 
guaranty remains in force only two years; it must then be re- 
newed, a new registration made, and a new card issued. The 
number of book borrowers' cards out at one time ranges from 
20,000 to 25,000. 

The entire expense of supporting the Library is borne by the 
city, and the money is raised by public taxation. The state law 
limits the amount of the tax levy to one-fifth of a mill on the 
dollar on the city valuation, but the City Council may appropri- 
ate a less amount. The several tax levies for the Library have been 
as follows: 1872, $56,839; 1873, $50,000; 1874, $25,208; 1875, 
$25,000; 1876, $25,000; 1877, $34,375; 1878, $23,000; 1879, 
$39,000; 1880, $43,000. The total running expenses of the Li- 
brary, except for the purchase of books, is about $24,000. Seven- 
teen persons give their whole time to the service of the Library, 
and five a portion of their time. 

In May, 1875, the Library was removed from Wabash avenue 
to the southwest corner of Dearborn and Lake streets, where it 
now is in rented rooms, which, as regards security from fire and 
accessibility, are wholly .unsuited for such use. Mayor Harri- 
son, in his annual address to the City Council, May 10th, 1880, 
spoke of the Library as " grandly accomplishing the ends of the 
projectors and the purposes for which the money of the taxpayers 
is being expended." On the matter of its location he said: 

" The pressing want of the Library is a safer and more accessi- 
ble building — one that shall be practically fire- proof, and nearer 
the ground. I am not aware of any other instance where a city 
library is kept in the third story "of a rented building occu- 
pied by twenty other tenants, and liable at any moment to be 
burned up. In case of fire it would be impossible to save any 
considerable portion of the books, which, independent of associa- 
tions connected with many of them as gifts contributed to the 
city after the great fire, have a pecuniary value of over $100,000. 
A building or any combustible material may be easily replaced, 
but a library destroyed is hard to replenish. Our Library is the 
pride of our city, the repository of many rare, choice and valua- 
ble works in history, poetry, science and art, and their destruc- 
tion could not be fully valued in dollars and cents. Should the 
building in which the Library is located be destroyed, the indif- 
ference of the authorities would be condemned in unmeasured 
terms. While it is yet time to provide against contingencies, I 
would suggest to your honorable body that some safer and better 
location be secured." 



Chicago Historical Society. 457 



CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

BY MRS. WILLIAM BARRY. 

One of the most solid and noteworthy institutions of the 
Northwest is the Chicago Historical Society. Its existence 
dates back to 1856, when Chicago, as a city, was yet in her " teens." 
The plan for its formation had been some time ripening in the 
minds of its projectors, and when, at length, it was presented at 
a meeting of some of the active and influential citizens, called 
together for its discussion, it met with a cordial and prompt 
response. 

The preliminary steps having been adopted, the society took 
shape at once, and entered upon a career of almost unparalleled 
success and usefulness, which found a check only in the ravages of 
that terrible fire, whose iconoclasm spared not even the records, 
which told the story of the society's labors and achievements. 

The first active members who composed the " body politic and 
corporate" were Messrs. William H. Brown, William B. Ogden, 
J. Young Scammon, Mason Brayman, Mark Skinner, George 
Manierre, John H. Kinzie, J. Y. Z. Blaney, E. I. Tinkham, J. D. 
Webster, W. A. Smallwood, Yan H. Higgins, £T. S. Davis, 
Charles H. Bay, S. D. Ward, M. D. Ogden, F. Scammon, E. B. 
McCagg and William Barry. 

The first president was the Hon. William H. Brown. He was 
one of the early settlers of Illinois, from New England, a man 
widely known and universally respected. Over fifty years ago 
he edited a newspaper in Yandalia, Illinois, which contributed 
largely to defeat the project to legalize slavery in the state. 

The first secretary and librarian was the Rev. William Barry, 
a native of Boston, Massachusetts, whose early archaeological and 
historical pursuits, knowledge of various languages, and familiar 
acquaintance with the practical workings of similar institutions, 
peculiarly fitted him for the part assigned him. 

The scope of the society's aims, as originally conceived by its 
founders, was very broad, extending backward as far as history 
extends — covering the present as fast as it passed into history, 
whether as related to the civil, political or ecclesiastical subjects 
of the day, and limited to no nation or tongue. It was on this 
broad, intelligent basis the society commenced and pursued its 
work — a work ever widening out and calling for the broadest 
range of both intellectual and executive ability. 



458 Chicago Historical Society. 

The history of its labors may be divided into two epochs — the 
period before the great Chicago fire, and that succeeding it. 

During the first period great efforts were made by the secre- 
tary, partly by visits and partly by correspondence, to secure from 
old settlers in different parts of the State, all possible traditions 
and manuscripts relating to the early settlement of Illinois; and 
a great deal of very valuable material was thus obtained — now, 
unfortunately, irrevocably lost. 

He also at once, began in person, the inspection of the ancient 
mounds of Illinois, and urged upon the State authorities to con- 
nect with the geological survey of the State, a particular and 
thorough survey of these very interesting archaeological remains, 
which may yet be destined to throw important light upon the 
early unwritten history of our race. 

A very valuable work was accomplished by the society during 
the civil war. The secretary early comprehending the solemn and 
vast issues of a struggle so momentous in its results to the whole 
waiting world, solving, as it might, the greatest political question 
of the ages, felt that, to meet the just adjudication of the future, the 
facts and materials of its history should be preserved as they arose. 
He therefore diligently gathered everything possible pertaining to 
it, and succeeded in making, probably, the largest collection of ma- 
terial relating to that important conflict, to be found in the coun- 
try. It consisted of newspapers, manuscripts and magazines, 
from all parts of the country, but especially from the South — let- 
ters from soldiers in both armies — an original diary of a captured 
rebel officer, and that also of a spectator at the seige of Vicks- 
burg — a large amount of unpublished manuscript material, num- 
bering over seven hundred individual papers — and entire files of 
Richmond newspapers, published during the war, and preserved 
by Jefferson Davis. 

The original Emancipation Proclamation was consigned for 
safe keeping to the custody of the society by the Board of Man- 
agers of the Soldiers' Home. 

It was during its first period that the society received a valu- 
able legacy from the Hon. Henry D. Gilpin, Philadelphia, 
amounting to about $45,000, which, fortunately, at the time of 
the fire had not become available to the special library for which 
it was intended. 

The collections, at the time of the fire, comprising books and 
pamphlets from all parts of the country and from foreign lands, 
amounted to not far from one hundred thousand. Besides books, 
manuscripts, etc., there were numerous oil paintings, Indian 
relics, and miscellaneous curiosities. 

But while engaged in its special work of collecting historic 



Chicago Historical Society. . 459 

material, it kept a vigilant eye upon all the great interests of the 
city, and was ready to lend to them its valuable influence and in- 
telligent co-operation. It took an active part* in exposing the 
evils of inter-mural interments — the initiative step which secured 
to Chicago one of the most attractive pleasure-grounds in the 
country — Lincoln park. It also encouraged the movement made 
some twenty years ago, to open by the way of the Georgian Bay, 
the means of unbroken water- transportation between Chicago and 
Europe. 

Through its influence, in co-operation with the French Con- 
sulate in Chicago, effective steps were taken by the French gov- 
ernment to open direct trade with Chicago through Canada, the 
country to avail itself of its large fishing fleet from France, 
which came over in ballast, to reduce the cost of freight; in ad- 
dition to which, arrangements were contemplated to establish at 
Chicago a branch of the " French Credit Mobilier," to furnish 
the needed aid of money in the enlargement of this international 
commerce. Unfortunately, when the agent of France was sent 
hither to carry into effect this scheme, the indications of the war 
of the rebellion were so threatening as to suppress any imme- 
diate movement, and since that time the attempt has not been 
renewed. 

Thus, year by year, had the society been multiplying its labors — 
extending its correspondence abroad and its influence at home, 
until it had come to be recognized as one of the most active 
and respectable institutions of the kind in the country. Among 
its honorary members were recorded distinguished and illustrious 
names in our own and foreign lands, some of which are Jared 
Sparks, Edward Everett, James Savage, Robert C. Winthrop, 
William H. Prescott, George Bancroft, Charles Sumner, John 
Young, John Lathrop Motley, Duke of Newcastle, Richard Cob- 
den, John Bright, andLadyJane Franklin. In the year 1868 the 
society moved from its over-crowded quarters, on the corner of 
Kinzie and Wells streets, into a "fire- proof* building, erected 
on its own lot, corner of Ontario and Dearborn streets, intended 
as a wing to a large and elegant structure to be built at a later 
period. We come now to the second epoch in the society's 
history, that succeeding the " Great Fire " of 1871, which laid all 
its treasures in ashes. 

A society that had established for itself such a prestige was 
not to be daunted, even by this overwhelming calamity. Scarcely 
had the embers of the great conflagration ceased to glow, when 
the president, with a few influential members, called upon Mr. 
Barry to discuss the situation, and plan measures for the imme- 
diate resumption of their work. They requested him to once 



430 . Chicago Historical Society. 

more take the helm, and enter again with the society upon its 
new career. In his great solicitude for its welfare he consented 
to take the proposal into consideration, and for a few weeks he 
gave the matter serious thought. But as the work opened before 
him it became so vast in its proportions, and so exacting in its 
demands, to ensure success, that he felt himself quite unequal to 
the task, and in a letter published in the Chicago Tribune, 'Nov. 
26th, 1871, he says : 

" The urgent, immediate demand is for an energetic, practical, 
learned librarian, equal to the labor required and competent, 
wisely to order, shape and execute it. For such a position I am 
physically unequal." Meantime he had received assurances 
from various historical and literary societies of their warm sym- 
pathy in the society's misfortunes, and their readiness to aid it 
in any possible way. He was also informed that contributions 
might be obtained from the public authorities of France, and 
probably from other European sources, if they were sought. The 
New England Historical and Geneological Society, of Boston, 
placed a room in their new fire-proof building at the disposal of 
the society, to which its various donations might be sent until it 
could provide a safe place of deposit. Very considerable collec- 
tions were soon made, which, by the request of the president, 
were subsequently forwarded to Chicago, where they were all 
consumed by the fire of July, 1874. True to those brave in- 
stincts for which Chicago has become famous, and which have 
been literally " tried by lire," these heroic, enterprising men, who 
held the destinies of the society in their hands, cast down, but 
not despairing, began again, and nobly pushed forward its work, 
while still trying to re- instate their own homes and churches, and 
the innumerable charitable and other institutions of the great 
struggling city. In the course of time, with a liberal view to 
the future, they obtained a plan for an extensive and elegant 
edifice, and soon after they raised sufficient money to erect a small 
portion of the rear — with the hope that it will gradually grow into 
its full and symmetrical proportions, as time and means allow, 
and the necessities of the society require. 

The new hall was first occupied Oct. 15th, 1877 — at which 
time the collections consisted of 703 bound volumes, and 988 un- 
bound, and pamphlets. Since then the increase has been very 
encouraging. At the present date, April, 1880, the number 
amounts to 4703 bound volumes, and 12,661 unbound and pam- 
phlets. To these the present energetic, zealous and faithful libra- 
rian, Mr. Albert D. Hager, has added a great variety of interest- 
ing curiosities, among them medals, coins, manuscripts, maps, 
etc., etc., which will become more and more valuable as their date 



Chicago Historical Society. 461 

recedes. One of the most interesting collections was presented 
during the last year by the late Mrs. Elizabeth E. Atwater, formerly 
a. resident of this city. 

Monthly meetings are held regularly in the hall of the society, 
at which historical and biographical papers are read to select and 
cultivated audiences. 

During the last year a legacy of real estate, lying in Chicago, 
was left to the society, by Miss Lucretia Pond, of Petersham, 
Massachusetts, which, at the time it was devised, was estimated 
at twenty thousand dollars. It could be wished such legacies 
were more frequent. The following are the names of the succes- 
sive presidents of the society : 

Hon. William H. Brown, Mr. Walter L. dewberry, Hon. J. 
Y. Scammon, Mr. Edwin H. Sheldon, and the Hon. Isaac N. 
Arnold, the present incumbent. The successive secretaries 
and librarians are as follows: Rev. William Barry, assisted by 
Col. Samuel Stone, for the first ten years. He was followed by 
Messrs. T. H. Armstrong, J. W. Hoyt and W. Cochran. After 
the fire the vacancy was temporarily filled by Mr. Belden F. 
Culver, until the services of a permanent secretary and librarian 
could be secured. This was effected May 17th, 1877, by the ap- 
pointment of the present incumbent, Mr. Albert D. Hager. 

Impressed with the great importance of this institution in a 
city like Chicago, standing as it does the great metropolitan 
representative of the Northwest, the society has quietly, but per- 
sistently, and with intelligent zeal, resumed and pursued its work — 
a work ever opening out into broader fields and embracing wider 
circles. The great strides of modern civilization bring us face 
to face with all the countries and peoples of the earth. We talk 
daily with Japan, Egypt and Znluland as easily, and by the same 
medium as with New York or Boston, and their history becomes 
ours in divers ways, whether we will or no. We can no longer 
narrow our lives to our own neighborhood. We are a part of 
the great wdiole, and whatever concerns the remotest nation or 
people concerns us. Every Historical Society which comprehends 
the extent and magnitude of its relations will gather into its 
archives whatever throws light upon the history of the world and 
man's relations with the great problem of life, whether in the 
darkness of barbarism or the light of a high civilization. And 
thus does the work of the intelligent historiographer become one 
of the most broadening and comprehensive in the whole circuit 
of human pursuits. 



462 The Board of Trade. 

THE BOARD OF TRADE. 

BY CHARLES RANDOLPH. 

The adage that "in union there is strength" finds exemplifi- 
cation in commercial, as in religious, social or political aflairs; 
hence, communities of considerable numbers desiring to promote 
measures for the common benefit, have found it desirable to effect 
an organization of some sort that may be representative of the 
interests involved, and that may give expression to the senti- 
ments of its members, or of the community for which it assumes 
to speak. At a comparatively early day in the history of Chi- 
cago, as a commercial center, its then small number of merchants 
deemed it for their common interest to organize as a Board of 
Trade. Whether or not the accomplishment of any special ob- 
ject was at that time had in view, does not appear from any records 
now in existence. It is certain, however, that the eighty-two 
names which in April, 1848, were first enrolled as members of 
the Board were eminently representative of the general com- 
mercial interests of the city then containing less than twenty 
thousand inhabitants. Chicago at that time had no public means 
of communication with the interior, except by the stage-coach 
and the " prairie schooner," but its favorable location, at the 
head of lake navigation, had already drawn to it a considerable 
volume of agricultural products, which were there exchanged for 
such needed supplies as could be procured only from the east. A 
brilliant future was, however, now believed to be dawning upon the 
infant city. The Illinois and Michigan Canal, connecting the lakes 
at this point with the waters of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, 
which has been in progress of construction since 1836, was about 
to be completed, and doubtless the anticipation of important results 
to flow from this great achievement, as well as the prospective ad- 
vantages of a railway system, which had then begun to assume 
tangible form, had more or less to do with the preparation of the 
merchants of the city for a united effort to meet the new and in- 
spiring prospects of trade. Whatever may have been the object 
and expectations of the originators of the enterprise, it is certain 
that for several years it failed to accomplish very much of prac- 
tical results, and its membership, instead of growing with the 
frowth of the city, actually declined to but little more than one- 
alf of its original numbers. In addition to occasional meet- 
ings for the consideration of questions of a generally public 
character, there seems to have been an early attempt to establish 
a daily exchange; this, however, met with but poor success, and 
for several years various and sometimes novel expedients were 
resorted to for the purpose of securing the attendance of mem- 
bers at these daily meetings. The promoters of the organization^ 



The Board of Trade. 463 

although discouraged by these fruitless efforts, clung to the idea 
that such a body ought to be sustained, and so kept it alive until 
its necessity became more apparent to others. By 1854 the influ- 
ence of railroads as contributors to the development of the interior 
and of the business of the city became so marked in the increase of 
the grain and provision trade, which could be more advantageously 
conducted in a general meeting of buyers and sellers than in 
private offices, that the daily meetings on 'Change began to as- 
sume a new importance, since which there has been no grounds 
for complaint as to the indifference of members engaged in those 
branches in respect to their attendance. 

In 1850 the Board, originally a voluntary organization, became 
incorporated under a general law of the State, and in 1859 a 
special act of incorporation was obtained from the Legislature, 
which has since remained the basis of the organization. Its gen- 
eral objects, as expressed in the preamble to its Rules and By- 
Laws are, " To maintain a commercial exchange ; to promote 
" uniformity in the customs and usages of merchants ; to incul- 
"cate principles of justice and equity in trade ; to facilitate the 
" speedy adjustment of business disputes; to acquire and dissem- 
" inate valuable commercial and economic information ; and, 
"generally, to secure to its members the benefits of co-operation 
" in the furtherance of their legitimate pursuits." In order to 
promote these objects, an elaborate code of Rules and By-Laws 
has been adopted, these being amended or modified from time to 
time, as necessity or experience may seem to require. These 
Rules and By-Laws, while covering matters touching the govern- 
ment of the corporation, extend to detailed and specific regula- 
tions for the conduct of trade; especially that in flour, grain and 
provisions, in which a large per centage of the members are en- 
gaged; although among the members are the representatives of 
almost every branch of trade in the city. 

The business transacted on 'Change has grown to enormous 
proportions, and includes not only the sales of the vast amount 
of agricultural products seeking the Chicago market by the re- 
ceiver from the interior to the shipper eastward, but also a vol- 
ume of speculation in these products unequalled in any other 
city in the world. The facility with which this class of property 
is handled, and the fact that almost any conceivable quantity can 
find a purchaser for cash on any day in the year, renders the mar- 
ket an exceedingly inviting one for speculative operations; and 
they are engaged in, through the members of the Board actii g 
as commission merchants or brokers, by almost all classes of per- 
sons, not only residents of the city, but those residing at remote 
points throughout the country; the latter far outnumbering the 



464 



The Board of Trade. 



former. A very small per cent, of the transactions made on 
'Change are other than on commission orders; and these fre- 
quently aggregate many millions of dollars daily, the same prop- 
erty being re-sold again and again. 

As illustrating the increase of the business of the city in the 
actual movement of the leading agricultural products finding a 
market in Chicago, the following tables, taken from the reports 
of the Board of Trade, are submitted. These, however, only show r 
the amount actually forwarded from the city to consuming 
points, and give but a very imperfect idea of the amount of tra- 
ding in them. To arrive at this, especially in the later years, the 
figures should be increased many told. 

SHIPMENTS FROM CHICAGO. 



YEAR. 


FLOUR, 

barrels. 


WHEAT, 

bushels. 


CORN, 

bushels. 


OATS, 

bushels. 


RYE, 

bushels. 


BARLEY, 

bushels. 


1838.. 




78 

10,000 

956,860 

883,644 

6,298,155 

12,402,197 

7,614,-87 

16,432,585 

23,184,349 

24,211,739 

31,006,789 










1840. . 












1845.. 


13,752 

100,871 

163,419 

698,13k 

1,293,42!- 

1,705,977 

2,285,118 

2,779,64( 

3,090,54( 










1850.. 


262,013 

7,517,625 

13,700,113 

25,487,241 

17,777,377 
26,443,884 
59,944,200 
61,299,376 


158,084 

1,888.588 

1,091,698 

11.142,140 

8,507,735 

10,279,134 

16,464,513 

13,514,020 




22 872 


1855.. 
I860.. 

1865. . 
1870.. 
1875.. 
1878.. 
1879.. 


19,326 

156,642 
999,289 
913,629 
810,502 
2,025,654 
3,284,363 


92,011 

267,449 

607,484 

2.584,692 

1,868,206 
3,520,983 
3,566.401 



YEAR. 


BEEF, 

tcs. andbbls 


PORK, 

barrels. 


MEATS, 

pounds. 

1,446,500 

6,401,487 

15,985.248 

55,026,609 

112,488,168 

362,141,948 

747,269,774 

835,629,540 


LARD, 

pounds. 

1,200,000 

1,803,900 

10,325,019 

2^,487,407 

43,292,249 

115,616,098 

244,323 938 

251,020,295 


BUTTER, 

pounds. 


SEEDS, 

pounds. 


1852.. 


53,965 
55,790 
85,563 

103,064 
65,369 
60,454 
67,757 

110,431 


10,976 
77,623 
91,721 
284,734 
165,8-5 
313.713 
346,366 
354,255 


12,853 


1855.. 




3,484,013 


I860.. 
1865.. 
1870.. 
1875.. 

1S78.. 
1879.. 


5,206,865 

6,493,143 

19,249,081 

44,507,59V 

51,262,151 


6,055,563 

7,514,928 

6,287,615 

55,42,s,491 

95,441,270 

133,566.596 



Year. 


WOOL, 

pounds. 


HIDES, 

pounds. 


CATTLE, 

number. 


HOGS, 

number. 


CATTLE 
PACKED IN 
THE CITY. 


HOGS 
PACKED IN 
THE CITY. 


1852.. 


920,113 

2,158,462 

839.269 

9,923.069 

15,826,536 

51,895,832 

43,009,697 

47.513.638 


2,396,250 
3,255.750 
14,863,514 
20,379,955 
27,245,846 
55,867,904 
51,875,447 
61,381.778 






21,806 
28,972 
34,624 
27,721 
21,254 
63,783 
♦383,960 
*4 Q 8.829 


22,086 
80,380 


1*55.. 






I860.. 
1865.. 

1870.. 

1875.. 
1*78.. 
1879. 


97.474 
301.627 
891,709 
696,534 
699,108 
726,908 


227,164 
644,545 
1,095,671 
1,736,166 
1,292,945 
1.732.385 


271,805 

507,355 

919,197 

2,320,846 

4,009,311 

4,960,9*6 



•Includes city consumption and shipments in the carcass. 



The Board of Trade. 465 

The aggregate value of farm products, including live stock and 
meats shipped from Chicago in 1879, is estimated at $252,152,000, 
besides which a large amount consumed in the city is also sold 
on 'Change. 

During its early years the Board was migratory, changing its 
quarters with the changing centre of business in the city, but 
always, until 1865, clinging near to the river banks. In 1859 
a building, at the time deemed ample in its accommodations for 
many years, was erected for the use of the Board; this was occu- 
pied early in I860; at that time the membership had increased to 
about 600. With the impetus given to the business of the mem- 
bers of the Board during the civil war, 1861-5, both in the vol- 
ume of products seeking a market in Chicago, and in operations 
of a speculative character, which although previously inaugura- 
ted, were greatly stimulated and increased during these years, the 
membership more than doubled, and its new quarters, although 
enlarged since first constructed, were found entirely inadequate 
to the necessities and comfort of those in daily attendance on 
'Change. As early as 1863 the question of enlarged accommo- 
dations again began to be seriously discussed, resulting finally, 
in February, 1864, in the consummation of an arrangement by 
which the members or others desiring to co-operate, organized a 
building association, under an existing charter granted to the 
Chamber of Commerce some years previously, but which had 
never been actively organized. This charter was well adapted to 
the purposes of such an organization, and its stock of §500,000 was 
promptly subscribed, and the building contemplated was rapidly 
pushed to completion. The Board of Trade, at the outset of the 
enterprise, contracted to lease so much of the building as its 
necessities required, for the term of ninety-nine years; the rental 
for which was subsequently fixed at $20,000 per annum. The new 
building was occupied by the Board in August, 1865, the mem- 
bership at that time numbering over 1,400. The new building 
and Exchange Hall, at the time of its construction, was by far 
the largest and finest of any, used for such a purpose, in the coun- 
try, and sufficed for all the needs of the Board until it was de- 
stroyed by the great fire of October, 1871. Previous to the loca- 
tion of the Board on its new quarters on the corner of Washington 
and LaSalle streets, that portion of the city had been occupied as 
residence property, very little of any kind of business being car- 
ried on south of Randolph street. !No sooner, however, had the 
location of the Board been decided upon, than the surrounding 
property began to appreciate in value, and business blocks rapidly 
supplanted dwellings, so that by the time the building was ready 
for occupation, it was surrounded by banks and business offices, 



466 The Board of Trade. 

entirely transforming the quiet streets of former days to the busy 
thoroughfares they have since remained. 

The lire of 1871 found the affairs of the Board in a most pros- 
perous condition, the business transacted under its auspices 
being much larger than ever before. The shock produced by this 
great catastrophe was, for the moment, staggering; and as the 
members saw the results of their labor and effort swept away in 
the wild scenes of those brief hours, the feeling of despair was 
well nigh overwhelming. The situation, however, was one that de- 
manded action, prompt and effective. Temporary quarters were 
secured near the margin of the burnt district hours before the 
conflagration was stayed, and rallying around it the members 
addressed themselves first to relieving the suffering, homeless 
multitudes; they for two days taking charge of the generous 
supplies sent from other cities and villages, distributing to the 
needy, and gathering together the scattered households. This 
duty being assumed by other organizations, the members turned 
their attention to business affairs, speedily adjusting outstanding 
engagements, and preparing for the proper care of the business 
that scarcely had ceased to flow in in its accustomed volume. 
The receipts of grain in the city from October 9th to 31st, ag- 
gregated over 3,750,000 bushels, notwithstanding the ability to 
care for such a business was greatly impaired. Among the first 
official acts of the Board was its determination to re-occupy its 
old quarters as soon as they could be rebuilt; and they having 
so advised the Chamber of Commerce, that corporation prepared 
at once for the reconstruction of the building, but on a mucli 
more substantial and elegant design than the one destroyed. 
The new structure was vigorously pushed to completion, and was 
formally occupied by the Board October 9, 1872, just one year 
from the date of the destruction of its predecessor. The new 
building, of the same dimensions as the old, occupies 90 feet on 
"Washington by 180 feet on LaSalle street, the Exchange Hall 
being 87 by 140 feet in area, with a ceiling 45 feet from the 
floor; connected with it are suitable offices and other rooms. 

These quarters were, at the time of their construction, deemed 
ample for all future time, but for several years past they have 
been overcrowded, and the question is being seriously discussed 
as to how the Board can secure more room. The membership 
in 1879 was but three short of 1800, and the daily attendance 
on 'Change, including visitors, renders locomotion through the 
Exchange room at times quite difficult. The business relations 
of members are constantly widening, and the promise for its in- 
crease' was never more marked than at the present time. 

One of the brightest pages in the history of the Board, was the 



The Board of Trade. 467 

unwavering support it gave the country in the hour of its great- 
est need. With the echo of the first gun fired at the national 
life, the members of the Board rallied to the support of the gov- 
ernment, taking the most active measures to organize, inspire, 
and place in the field, those men who bared their breasts to the 
fury of battle and finally achieved a victory, the fruits of which 
may be enjoyed by generations yet unborn. Many of the mem- 
bers gave emphasis to [their patriotic emotions by personally 
joining with the " boys in blue," and sharing in the hardships 
and dangers of active military operations; others contributed 
freely of their means to supply the needs of the soldier in camp 
and of his family left behind. Three regiments of infantry and 
a battery of artillery were organized under the auspices of and 
bore the name of the Board of Trade during three years of active 
service; over these the Board kept special watch, that they should 
not suffer the lack of anything that money or attention could 
supply, and on their account, together with contributions to 
others in the field, not less than $150,000 was raised and distrib- 
uted by members of the Board. 

In other fields of benevolence the members of the Board have 
heartily tendered their contributions of material aid; the devas- 
tations of fire, storm, pestilence and famine ever find them wil- 
ling to lend a helping hand to the distressed, and assist as best 
they can to lighten the burden which these casualties from time 
to time place on some portion of their fellow-men. 

That the men composing this body are, in general, possessed 
of unusual business ability, are remarkable for their quick per- 
ception of business possibilities, and are of untiring devotion to 
business affairs, will perhaps be freely conceded by all acquainted 
with their habits and modes of conducting those affairs; the best 
indications of their true manhood, however, are to be found in 
their generous treatment of the unfortunate, whether of their 
own numbers or of distressed humanity throughout the world. 



468 The Old Ladies' Home. 



THE OLD LADIES' HOME. 

BY MRS. B. W. RAYMOND. 

In the fall of the year, 1861, Miss Caroline Smith, who had by 
industry accumulated a small fortune, desiring to leave it for the 
benefit of the aged, called a meeting of all the clergymen of the 
city, and two or three members of their respective churches, for 
the purpose of starting an " Old Ladies' Home." The organiza- 
tion was completed in April, 1862 — Rev. James Pratt, D. D., 
Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, as President, and a Board 
of Managers numbering about forty. 

A house was secured, and Miss Smith, at her own request, was 
appointed Matron, with three inmates, but she proved wholly in- 
competent for the position, and after a trial of three months was 
asked to resign, and with her resignation went the little fortune 
we were expecting. She, however, bequeathed us about one 
thousand dollars and two lots near Thirty -fifth street, on Wabash 
avenue and State street. 

Dr. Pratt resigned when he removed from the city, and his 
successor was J. C. Fargo, Esq., who served but a short time. 
Rev. O. H. Tiffany, D. D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
was unanimously elected president, and at the close of the year 
1864, Hon. B. W. Raymond succeeded him, and retained the po- 
sition until the change to the " Old People's Home," in May, 
1872. 

In the spring of 1864, we purchased for the sum of five thou- 
sand dollars, a house in which eleven inmates only could be ac- 
commodated. After the great fire, several more crowded into 
it, but so great were the discomforts in the old, dilapidated build- 
ing, that a committee had been appointed to select a lot upon 
which to build, but no decision had been made in regard to a lot, 
and no money collected to pay either for it or the building. 

It was at this time that the Relief and Aid Society promised 
fifty thousand dollars towards a lot and building, stipulating, 
however, that we change the name, our charter and our rules. 
Many were the meetings called and numerous were the objections 
made by the ladies of the Board, before they could agree to ac- 
cept the conditions imposed by the Relief and Aid Society. 
When they promised the fifty thousand dollars they reserved the 
right of placing an inmate in the " Home " for each twenty-five 
hundred dollars given. 

It is situated on Indiana avenue, near Thirty-ninth street, cov- 
ering just one-half of the lot. It is the design of the Society, 
sometime in the future, to build the twin of this, for Old Gentle- 
men, hence the name, " Old People's Home." 



The Old Ladies' Home. 469 

It is a beautiful " Home," with eighty single rooms and several 
large ones, has parlor, dining-room, chapel, and a large sitting- 
room upon each of the three floors. It was completed, and we 
moved our nineteen old ladies on Nov. 25th, 1874. 

At this time many were impatiently waiting, and our numbers 
increased rapidly. It is nineteen years since this society was or- 
ganized ; the names of one hundred old ladies have been recorded, 
and one hundred and thirty gentlemen and ladies have been 
members of the Board of Managers. 

At the time of the change, when the " Old People's Home " 
was organized, eight years ago, nine Trustees were elected, viz: 
W. H. Kyder, D.D., H. H. Taylor, Col J. L. James, A. E. Bishop, 

B. W. Eaymond, N. S. Bouton, H. W. King, Dr. A. Jones and 

C. G. Hammond, with thirty-six Lady Managers, five of w T hom 
were among the original number nineteen years ago. We now 
have sixty-four inmates, and annually expend nearly seven thou- 
sand dollars. From the few thousand generously donated by 
some and bequeathed by others, we receive less than one thousand 
dollars interest money per year, therefore you will perceive that 
we are dependant almost entirely upon voluntary contributions 
to meet our monthly expenses, collected by our solicitor, Mrs. L. 

D. Parkes, and small amounts through members of the Board. 
An afternoon service is held each Sabbath at 3 o'clock, in the 

Chapel, conducted by either minister or laymen, as provided by 
the Yisiting Committee for the month, and an evening prayer- 
meeting during the week. 

The building is free from debt, and, so far, all our bills are 
paid. The Matron, Mrs. Shankland, and the old ladies, will be 
happy to see their friends, and those friendly to the " Home," at 
any time. 

The Lady Managers desire in this public way to ask their 
friends to remember that the support of those committed to their 
care depends upon their donations, and the provision they make 
either during their life, or by their " wills," towards a permanent 
endowment of the Institution. 



470 History of the Chicago Tribune. 

HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. 

BY HON. WILLIAM BROSS. 

The Chicago Tribune, like all the great newspapers of the na- 
tion, had a very contracted and humble origin. It commenced 
life on Thursday, July 10th, 1847, in the third story of a building 
on the corner of LaSalle and Lake streets, a single room being 
sufficient for the counting room, printing office, and editorial 
sanctum. The men who stood sponsors for it at its birth, were 
James J. Kelly, John E. "Wheeler and J. C. K. Forest. The 
first and the latter named gentlemen still live to see, and doubt- 
less feel proud of, the sturdy, vigorous manhood of their early 
venture. Mr. Forest suggested the name, Tribune, which. Mr. 
"Wheeler readily adopted, having been in the employ of the paper 
" founded by Horace Greeley." It was independent in politics, 
with free-soil leanings. Four hundred copies, worked off on a 
hand press, one of the proprietors acting as pressman, was the 
extent of the first edition of the Tribune. 

In July, Mr. Kelly, owing to failing health, sold his interest 
to Thomas A. Stewart, who for seven years was actively engaged 
in the management of the paper. September 27, of the same 
year, Mr. Forest retired from the concern, and it was conducted 
by Messrs. Wheeler & Stewart till August 23, 1848, when John 
L. Scripps purchased a third interest; after which the firm name 
was Wheeler, Stewart & Scripps. 

May 12, 1857, the office was entirely destroyed by fire, and, 
after several removals, it was located in the Masonic Building, 
No. 173 Lake street, in May, 1850. The paper began to be 
prosperous, and it was enlarged to the dimensions of twenty-six 
by forty inches, and had a daily circulation of 1,120. 

On the 7th of July, 1857, Mr. Wheeler sold his interest to 
Thos. J. Waite, who became the business manager. In June 
following, Mr. Scripps sold his third interest to a party of lead- 
ing Whigs, and Gen. William Duane Wilson assumed the edito- 
rial management. The paper was an active free-soil organ, and 
supported Gen. Scott for President. Mr. Waite dying August 
26th, 1852, Henry Fowler purchased his interest, and March 23d, 
1853, General Wilson sold his interest to Henry Fowler & Co., 
the company being Timothy Wright and Gen. J. D.Webster. 

June 18th of the same year, Joseph Medill, of Cleveland, 
bought an interest in the firm, and the paper was issued by 
Wright, Medill & Co. 

T. A. Stewart sold his interest to his partners July 21, 1855, 
and September 23, Dr. C. H. Ray and J. C. Vaughan were an- 
nounced as the editors, and Alfred Cowles was taken into the 



History of the Chicago Tribune. 471 

firm. The proprietors were then Timothy Wright, J. D. Web- 
ster, Dr. Ray, Joseph Medill, John C. Yaughan and Alfred 
Cowles. Mr. Yaughan withdrew March 26, 1857, and the name 
of the firm became Ray, Medill & Co., which it retained till 
July 1, 1858, when the Tribune and the Democratic Press were 
consolidated. 

The first number of that paper was issued Sept. 16, 1852, by 
John L. Scripps and William Bross. The office was at 45 Clark 
street. For a time it was a strictly conservative-democratic paper, 
but after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill it became free 
soil, and at the organization of the Republican party it earnestly 
supported that party. The proprietors finding themselves occu- 
pying precisely the same ground politically as those of the Tri- 
bune, the two papers were united as above stated, on the 1st of 
July, 1858, each one being valued at §100,000. The consolidated 
paper was called the Press and Tribune, but Oct. 25, 1861, the 
word Press was dropped, and at the session of the Legislature in 
1861-2, a charter was granted, with a capital of $200,000, to the 
Tribune Company. The incorporators were Dr. Ray, Medill, 
Cowles, Scripps and Bross. 

The immense business of the Tribune at this time required 
more ample accommodations, and in 1868 the company began 
a new building of its own on the southeast corner of Madison 
and Dearborn streets. The lot is 72 feet on Dearborn by 121 
on Madison street. The material was Joliet marble, four stories 
high, and cost $225,000. Printed on a hand press in 1847, with 
an edition of 400, it now required two of Hoe's eight-cylinder 
presses to satisfy the demands of the public. Though the build- 
ing was intended to be fire-proof, the great fire of 1871 ruined it, 
and owing to the enhanced price of labor and materials, the new 
building, of Lake Superior red sandstone, cost $250,000. 

The establishment is now equipped with two of Bullock's per- 
fecting presses and one of Hoe's, with improved folding machines 
attached, so that the papers come out all folded ready for the car- 
riers and the mails. 

The principal stockholders of the Tribune are now Joseph 
Medill, William Bross, Alfred Cowles, Horace White and Henry 
D. Lloyd. Wm. Bross is President, Joseph Medill, Yice Presi- 
dent and Editor-in-chief, and S. J. Medill, Managing Editor, and 
Alfred Cowles, Secretary and Treasurer. Of these Messrs. Me- 
dill, Bross and Cowles have been connected with the daily since 
1855 — a quarter of a century. 

It is no disparagement to others to say that the Tribune has 
for many years occupied a leading position in the commercial, 
the general business and the political affairs of the Northwest. 



472 History of The Chicago Legal News. 

As a newspaper it has no superior in the nation, for while in 
some few departments the great New York dailies may excel, it 
leads them greatly in its western news, and by it more than 
makes up for any particular advantages which its eastern rivals 
can claim. All through the rebellion its war news was compre- 
hensive and accurate, and its influence in keeping up the courage 
of the people to the highest patriotic standard, and in stimulating 
them to exertion was most effective and valuable. The Tribune 
is in fact one of the most influential, prosperous and powerful 
journals in the nation, and its pecuniary value is held in hundreds 
of thousands of dollars. It has justly merited all the position 
and the ample fortune it has acquired. 



HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO LEGAL NEWS. 

BY MYEA BRADWELL. 

The Chicago Legal News is the oldest weekly legal journal 
in the Western States. The first number was issued October 3, 

1868, by Myra Brad well, as editor and publisher. In February, 

1869, the Legislature,* by special act, incorporated the editor and 
her associates, under the title of The Chicago Legal News 
Company. Several acts were also passed, providing that all laws 
and decisions of the Supreme Court of Illinois, printed in this 
journal, should be taken as prima facie evidence in all the 
courts of the State, and it was declared to be a good and valid 
medium for the publication of all legal notices. 

As its name implies, it is devoted mainly to legal matters, and 
publishes the most important decisions of the Supreme Court of 
Illinois in advance of the Reports; the decisions of the District 
and Circuit Courts of the United States; head notes from the 
reports of the various State Supreme Courts in advance of the 
regular issues; abstracts of recent English cases, and the latest 
general legal intelligence. 

The Legal News has been foremost in advocating reforms in 
the laws of the State, and many of the changes first suggested in 
its columns have received the sanction of the Legislature. 

Notwithstanding the great fire and the financial embarrass- 
ment that has swept over the country, the Legal News has 
never failed to make its regular weekly visits to its subscribers, 
and we must admit the success of this journal has been far 
greater than its most sanguine friends ever anticipated. 



History of the Chicago Evening Journal. 473 

HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO EVENING JOURNAL. 

BY ANDREW 8HUMAU. 

The Am erican was the first daily newspaper published in Chi- 
cago, or in the State of Illinois. It was started by William 
Stewart, April 9, 1839, and the late Judge Buckner S. Morris be- 
came its proprietor in 1841. It was discontinued for want of sup- 
port October 17, 1842. On the last day of that month, W. W. 
Brackett, who had been connected with the American, started 
the Express as its successor. In 1844, at the opening of the 
presidential campaign of that year, the political friends of Henry 
Clay formed a joint stock company, bought out the Express, and 
started the Journal as a Whig campaign paper, the first number 
being issued April 22d. The stockholders appointed an editorial 
committee, consisting of J. Lisle Smith, William H. Brown, 
George W. Meeker, J. Y. Scammon and G-rant Goodrich, to 
conduct the paper, assisted by Richard L. Wilson and J". W. Kor- 
ris as office editors and business managers. At the close of the 
campaign, which ended in the defeat of Mr. Clay by James K. 
Folk, the newspaper office and the paper passed into the hands of 
Richard L. Wilson, who established it on a permanent basis as 
an organ of the Whig party. Mr. Wilson continued to edit it 
until he was appointed postmaster by President Zachary Taylor, 
in 1849 ; and when, with other " Seward Whig " office-holders, 
he was removed by Millard Fillmore, a few months subsequently, 
he resumed the editorship, associating with hi m his brother Charles 
L. — the publishing firm being Richard L. & Charles L. Wilson. 
At the demise of the Whig party, the Journal became a Re- 
publican paper, and has continued such until the present time. 
Richard died in December, 1856. At that time Andrew Shuman 
was associate editor, George F. Upton, city and commercial re- 
porter, and Benjamin F. Taylor literary editor. 

Charles L. Wilson became the sole proprietor of the Journal 
on the death of his brother. In 1861, when Abraham Lincoln 
became president, and William H. Seward secretary of state, he 
was tendered and accepted the appointment of secretary of the 
American Legation at London. He left the Journal office in 
charge of John L. Wilson, an older brother, as' publisher, and of 
Andrew Shuman, as editor. During the years of the war of the 
rebellion, the Journal prospered famously, and when, in 1864, 
Charles L. Wilson resigned his official position abroad, and re- 
turned to resume charge of his newspaper establishment, he 
found it a very valuable property. His brother, John L., retained 
his business connection with the office, and Mr. Shuman con- 



474 History of the Chicago Evening Journal. 

tinued as managing editor. In 1869, John L. retired, and Col. 
Henry W. Farrar, his son-in-law, who was also Charles L.'s 
brother-in-law, became business manager. 

The great conflagration of 1871 consumed the Journal office 
and all its books and materials. But it did not omit a single day's 
issue. Before the flames which devoured the better part of the 
city were fairly extinguished, the energetic proprietor of the 
paper, seconded by a force of editorial and reportorial assistants 
who were as prompt and public-spirited as their employer was reso- 
lute, hired the material and presses of a job office on the west 
side of the river, and issued an Evening Journal at the usual 
hour of publication, and it was issued regularly thereafter. In 
April, 1872, the Journal office was removed into a fine new 
brick building, with a stone front, and being five stories high, at 
159 and 161 Dearborn street, where it continues to be published 
to this day, being one of the oldest and most prosperous news- 
paper and printing establishments in the West. 

In 1875 Charles L. Wilson's health began to fail, and in March, 
1878, he died at San Antonia, Texas, whither, accompanied by 
his wife and infant daughter, he had gone to spend the winter. 
Before his death he had perfected a plan for the re-organization 
of the Evening Journal as a joint stock company, of which he 
was president, and Henry "W. Farrar secretary and business man- 
ager. After his death, Mrs. Wilson and her daughter, being his 
sole heirs, became owners of nearly all the stock of the Journal 
company. Andrew Shuman was elected president of the com- 
pany, and remained in editorial control of the paper, and Henry 
W. Farrar (Mrs. Wilson's brother) continued as secretary, treas- 
urer and business manager. On the first of March, 1880, the 
company leased the newspaper establishment to Andrew Shu- 
man and John R. Wilson, a nephew of the late proprietor, and 
they are in charge of it at this time, Mr. Shuman having control 
of the editorial department, and Mr. Wilson of the business de- 
partment. Mrs. Charles L. Wilson and her daughter still own 
nearly all the stock of the Journal company, but the lessees 
have the option of purchasing it at the end of their lease, or 
sooner, and it is their purpose to do this. 

This is a brief history of the oldest daily newspaper published 
in Chicago — a continued existence of over thirty-six years. Its 
pages are a reflex of the eventful years of its publication. Its 
columns are a chronicle of Chicago's progress from a small fron- 
tier village to a great and progressive city. Fortunately nearly 
all the bound volumes of the old American, Express and Journal 
were saved from the fire of 1871, and among the most interesting 
and valuable historical data and relics of the city are contained 
within their covers. 



History of the Chicago Evening Journal. 4:75 

Among those now more or less famous, locally or generally, 
who have at one time or another been connected with the Jour- 
nal as writers, are Benjamin F.Taylor, the poet and lecturer; 
George P. Upton, now of the Tribunes corps of writers; J. C. K. 
Forrest, subsequently of "Long John " "Wentworth's Democrat, 
and now of the News; Andre Matteson, now of the Times; 
Horace White, subsequently editor of the Tribune; Henry M. 
Smith, subsequently city editor of the Tribune; J. H. McVicker, 
now of McYicker's Theatre; Prof. Nathan Sheppard, now a pop- 
ular lecturer; Paul Selby, now editor of the Illinois State Jour- 
nal, at Springfield; Prof. J. "W. Larrimore, late principal of the 
Cook County Xormal School, and now assistant principal of one 
of our city public schools; Dr. Frank Peiley; W. X. Sullivan, 
late president of the Chicago Board of Education, and now city 
editor of the Journal; Charles H. "Wignall, deceased, Thomas M. 
"Wignall, the present commercial editor, succeeding him; James 
H. Field, Henry M. Hugunin, John C. Miller, Oliver Perry, F. F. 
Browne, and many others. 



476 The Chicago Times. 



THE CHICAGO TIMES. 

The Chicago Times was established in 1854, as a Democratic 
party paper — more especially- as the personal and political organ 
of Senator Douglas. It was continued with varied fortunes and 
by different owners as a Democratic party paper, representing 
different factions of the party, until 1861, when it was purchased 
by the present proprietor, Wilbur F. Storey. During the whole 
period of its existence, until thus purchased, it probably had never 
been legitimately self-sustaining for a single week, having relied 
upon party contributions for sustenance. Not having been in any 
true sense a newspaper, it had not acquired more than a meager 
circulation, and its advertising patronage was of small account. 
"When purchased by the present proprietor, it had been some time 
" run" at a loss of hundreds of dollars per week, its last unfor- 
tunate owner having been Mr. Cyrus H. McCormick; and it was 
not until the lapse of some months and the expenditure of tens 
of thousands of dollars, that its purchaser brought it up to the 
condition of a remunerative newspaper. 

Its history since is of steady progress, until it has become one 
of the leading public journals of this continent. It continued 
democratic until the famous Greeley campaign, when it u bolted " 
the party nomination, and has since steadily grown in the grace 
of independence, and is now universally recognized as a news- 
paper, as the organ of the people, and the exponent of inde- 
pendent thought. 

A striking evidence of the growth of The Times can be ob- 
tained by an examination of its material appliances. In 1860 it 
was " struck off" on a single cylinder press, which printed only 
one side at a time, the entire capacity of the press department 
not exceeding one thousand copies per hour. Now it has eight 
lightning presses, each of which prints, cuts, folds and turns off 
ready for delivery, ten thousand each hour; or an aggregate 
capacity of eighty thousand per hour — a most extraordinary press 
capacity, but which is demanded by that feature in The Times 
system which holds the paper " open " for news up to within the 
shortest possible time from the moment when delivered to the 
public. In 1860, The Times was edited and printed and published 
in four or five rooms in a building on Dearborn street. Now it 
occupies substantially all of its present quarters on the corner of 
Fifth avenue and Washington street, a building five stories and 
a basement in height, and 183 by 80 in its dimensions on the ground. 
Its entire personal force, when the paper was bought by Mr. Storey, 
in April, 1861, was composed of less than halt a dozen editors, 
reporters, and clerical attaches. It now has an editorial, repor- 



The Chicago Times. 477 

torial, and clerical staff of over fifty persons, and a corps of tele- 
graphic and special correspondents of over 350, and whose field 
of operations includes every city and town of any importance in 
the United States, the principal cities of Canada, Mexico, Great 
Britain and continental Europe. 

In its mechanical appliances, The Times has no superiors, and 
but few equals. It has pneumatic tubes which connect the build- 
ing with the Western Union Telegraph office, a block distant, and 
also the various departments of the establishment with each other. 
It is the first newspaper in the world to introduce lighting by 
electricity into its composition room; and it lias been equally the 
first, or among the very first, to avail itself of every improve- 
ment which, to any extent, would facilitate celerity in the collec- 
tion and publication of news. 

The Times has a most thorough organization of a series of de- 
partments, whereby there is secured an entire responsibility, and the 
utmost swiftness and completeness of execution. Everything per- 
taining to the work of collecting the matter for each issue, its 
preparation, and the issuing and delivery of the printed sheet, 
falls within the province of these various departments. Each of 
them has its head, who is responsible to the editor for the man- 
agement of his assignment of labor, and who, in turn, holds each 
of his employes accountable for the proper execution of his task. 
The result of all this is a perfect division of labor, and an ope- 
rating which is swift, noiseless, without friction, and perfect in its 
execution. 

As an evidence of the enterprise of The Times in the collec- 
tion of news, it may be stated that during the Eusso-Turkish 
war it established a European bureau for the collection and trans- 
mission of intelligence, solely for its own columns; and that the 
amount of war news cabled each day was equal in quantity to 
what was received by The Times of London, or any of the lead- 
ing English dailies. 

Another evidence of its enterprise in the collection of news is 
found in the fact that for years its average annual expenditure 
for telegraph news has been between $75,000 and $100,000. 

It may be added, in conclusion, that The Times, advanced as 
it is in the collection and issuing of news, has in view further 
improvements of a most pronounced character, and whose nature 
will be developed in the near future. It is the aim of The Times 
in the future, as it has been in the past, to occupy no second 
place in the advance of journalism. 



478 The Chicago Inter Ocean. 



THE CHICAGO INTER OCEAN. 

BY WM. H. BUSBEY. 

The Inter Ocean is the youngest of the three leading morning 
papers of Chicago, the first number having been issued March 
25, 1872. The founder was Mr. J. Young Scammon, an old, 
highly esteemed and public- spirited citizen, who, realizing that 
there was a demand for an uncompromising Republican daily, 
purchased the Associated Press franchise of the Republican, 
which had been wrecked in the disastrous fire of 1871. To keep 
the franchise alive, Mr. Scammon continued the publication of 
the Republican until all arrangements were perfected to start the 
new daily, with new men, new type and new machinery. 

The Republicanism of the initial number of The Inter Ocean 
was of the most stalwart order, the proprietor indicating the spirit 
of the paper in the crisp declaration: " Independent in nothing; 
Republican in everything." 

Mr. Scammon went into the enterprise with characteristic zeal 
and energy, and calling to his assistance a number of practical 
and experienced men, soon made The Inter Ocean a political 
power, not only in the city and State, but throughout the North- 
west. 

Its radical Republicanism and its devotion to the party it pro- 
fessed to represent, were made so manifest during the Presi- 
dential campaign of 1872, that it at once secured an influence in 
the party not equalled by many journals of much longer standing. 
The erratic course of other journals claiming to be Republican 
also contributed much to the success of the new venture, and the 
circulation of the paper increased rapidly. 

Mr. Scammon continued to be sole proprietor of The Inter 
Ocean until the spring of 1873, when the Hon. F. W. Palmer, of 
Des Moines, Iowa, bought a large interest and became editor-in- 
chief. Under his management the paper prospered until the 
panic of 1873 prostrated the affairs of the country and caused 
the financial embarrassment of Mr. Scammon, the principal pro- 
prietor. In the fall of 1875 the corporation, under pressure of 
large indebtedness, was compelled to sell the paper to a new or- 
ganization. This transfer placed The Inter Ocean under the con- 
trol of Wm. Penn Nixon, who had been for some years the business 
manager. 

Notwithstanding the great depression of the times, the paper 
was put on a firm footing by the infusion of new capital and the 
introduction of new andimproved machinery, and entered upon 
a new era of prosperity. 



The Chicago Inter Ocean. 479 

Through all its vicissitudes The Inter Ocean maintained its 
political integrity, constantly gaining in influence and circula- 
tion. The aggregate circulation of the several editions is prob- 
ably larger than that of any political paper in the country. The 
Weekly Inter Ocean has a circulation varying from ninety to one 
hundred thousand copies. The postage on The Inter Ocean for 
the year 1879, was $14,277.84, with one exception the largest 
amount paid by any newspaper in the United States. 

The Inter Ocean is printed on Bullock presses, and was the 
first paper in the country to perfect and use a folder and machinery 
for cutting, folding and pasting, attached to the press. This con- 
trivance was the invention and work of Mr. Walter Scott, Su- 
perintendent of The Inter Ocean machinery department. 

From 1873 to May 1, 1880, The Inter Ocean was published at 
119 Lake street. The establishment was then moved to more 
commodious and convenient quarters in the new Inter-Ocean 
Building, 85 Madison street. In arrangement and outfit the new 
building is one of the most complete in the city. 

The Inter Ocean is ably edited in all its departments, and its 
proprietors are as proud of its success as a newspaper as of its 
influence as the representative of the principles of the Republi- 
can party. 



480 The Dearborn Observatory. 



THE DEARBORN OBSERVATORY. 

BY ELIAS COLBERT. 

The Observatory tower is on the west side of the University 
building, and is about 90 feet high. The top of the central pier 
is 66 feet above the ground. The centre of the telescope is about 
685 feet above the sea level, in north latitude 40° 50' V ; longi- 
tude west from Greenwich, 5h. 50m. 26*78s., or 87° 36' 41.7" ; and 
do. from Washington Oh. 42m. 14.69s, or 10° 33' 40.4/' The axis 
of the transit telescope, situated a few rods west of the tower, is 
612f feet above sea level. The equatorial instrument is a refrac- 
tor, with 18-J inches aperture, and a focal length of about 23 feet. 

A. numerously attended meeting was held in Bryan Hall, in 
December, 1862, on motion of President Burroughs and some 
of the University Trustees. It was addressed by Rev. M. R. 
Forey, who wanted to sell a Fitz telescope worth about $3,000. 
Prof. A. H. Mixer, Hon. W. H. Wells, Hon. T. B. Bryan, Hon. 
Thos. Hoyne and J. H. Woodworth, were appointed a committee 
to obtain subscriptions. In one month the committee w^as ready 
to act, but Mr. Wells had ascertained that the Fitz glass was not 
a desirable one, and January 23, 1863, found Mr. Hoyne at the 
house of Mr. Alvan Clark, in Cambridgeport, Mass., buying what 
was then the largest refractor in the world, which had been made 
to the order of the University of Mississippi, but left on his hands 
by the breaking out of the rebellion. The cost of the glass, $11,187, 
besides $7,000 for mounting it, was paid by subscriptions of $500 
and $100 each, the donors becoming members of the Chicago 
Astronomical Society, organized in November, 1863. The erec- 
tion of the tower, costing some $30,000, w r as paid for by Hon. J. 
Y. Scammon, the first and only President of the Society. In 
April, 1866, the big telescope w r as mounted, and Prof. Truman 
H. Safford, of Cambridge, Mass., was appointed Director of the 
Observatory, becoming, ex officio, Professor of Astronomy in the 
University. 

During the next three years Prof. Safford employed the tele- 
scope in observing and hunting for nebulas; discovering about 
one hundred not previously known. By this time the dome of 
the observatory had got so much out of order that it could scarcely 
be used; and Walter S. Gurnee donating $5,000 for the purpose, 
the meridian circle (telescope) was procured from the Bepsolds, 
Germany, and Prof. Safford then worked with that instrument until 
October, 1871, observing stars in the zone limited by the paral- 
lels of 35° and 40° north declination. This was part of the great 
work undertaken by an association of leading astronomers to i*e- 



The Chicago Bench. 481 

vise the Bonn catalogue of stars, determining their positions with 
the greatest possible accuracy. 

The salary of the Director had been paid solely by Mr. Scam- 
raon up to the time of the Great Fire. That calamity made it 
impossible for him to contribute further, and as there was no 
money in the treasury, Prof. Safford undertook work for the gov- 
ernment in determining the positions of points in the Territorial 
boundaries. He subsequently accepted the position of Professor 
of Astronomy in Williams College, Mass. In April, 1874, the 
writer undertook the care of the Observatory and the astro- 
nomical instruction in the University, without compensation; and 
during the next live years gave to it all the time he could spare 
from his daily round of duty on The Tribune. During that in- 
terval he took up a subscription for rebuilding the dome, since 
which the great telescope has been employed to good purpose by 
three or four observers. He also established the system of time 
signals which (with slight interruption) have been regularly given 
from the observatory since Xovember, 1ST5. Prof. Satfurd and 
he had moved in this direction just previous to the Great Fire. 

In May, 1879, Prof. G. W. Hough, formerly of the Dudley 
Observatory, at Albany, X. Y., was elected to direct the Observ- 
atory, and is now in charge. He has introduced some valuable 
improvements. 

The Observatory is yet on a slender pecuniary basis, though 
worthy of a most generous support. It has not been deemed ad- 
visable to attempt to raise a permanent fund by general contribu- 
tion, until the citizens of Chicago have more fully realized the 
benefit of prosperous times. 

The astronomical Society was reorganized June 9th, 1875, the 
new subscribers becoming members. Its present officers are: 
President, J. Y. Scammon; Vice-President, W. hi. Wells; See- 
retarv, C. H. S. Mixer; Treasurer, H. C. Eanney; Director of the 
Observatory, Prof. G. W. Hough. 



THE CHICAGO BENCH. 

RECORDS FROM HON. THOMAS DEU1IMOXD. 

Hon. John McLean was appointed Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, on the 7th of March, 1S29, 
in the place of Hon. Robert Trimble, deceased. Illinois was ad- 
mitted into the Union as a State on the the 3d of December, 
ISIS; but there was not a District Court of the United States 
provided for the State of Illinois until March 3d, 1819, when under 
an act of that date Nathaniel Pope was appointed District Judge of 



482 The Chicago Bench, 

the United States for the District of Illinois, and retained that 
office until his death in January, 1850, when he was succeeded by 
Thomas Drummond, who was appointed District Judge in Feb- 
ruary, 1850, and continued District Judge of the District of Illi- 
nois, and then of the Northern District of Illinois, until he was 
appointed Circuit Judge, in December, 1869, but he did not 
assume the duties of the office until January, 1870. 

The District Court of the United States for the District of 
Illinois had what is called Circuit Court jurisdiction, and Judge 
Pope was the sole judge thereof until the act of Congress of 
March, 1837, when there was a Circuit Court created in Illinois, 
which became a part of the Seventh Circuit under that act, and 
to that circuit Judge McLean was assigned, and held, either alone 
or with the District Judge, the Circuit Court of the United 
States for the District of Illinois, and also for the two districts, 
when the State was divided into two districts in March, 1855, 
until the time of his death in 1861. 

Noah H. Swayne was appointed the successor of Judge Mc- 
Lean, January 24, 1862, and became presiding Judge of the Cir- 
cuit Court in Illinois. 

David Davis was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, on the 8th of December, 1862, at a 
time w T hen Illinois constituted a part of the Seventh Circuit; 
but on the 28th of January, 1863, Illinois was made a part of the 
Eighth Circuit, and Mr. Justice Davis was assigned to the Eighth 
Circuit, and became Circuit Judge of the United States for the 
two districts of Illinois, and so continued up to the time of his 
resignation in March, 1877, in the manner herein stated. 

On the 29th of November, 1877, John M. Harlan was appointed 
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and 
was assigned to the Seventh Circuit, that circuit being constituted 
of the States of Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, by the act of 
July 23, 1866; and so became, and is now, the presiding Judge 
of the Circuit Court for the two Districts of Illinois. 



RECORDS FROM HON". GRANT GOODRICH. 

The County of Cook was organized in 1831, with Chicago as 
the County seat. Richard J. Hamilton was appointed Clerk of 
the Circuit Court, Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court, 
Recorder, School Commissioner, Probate Justice and Notary Pub- 
lic. Richard M. Young held the first term of court in the fall of 
1833. In May, 1834, he presided at a term held in an unfinished 
room in the Mansion House, a small hotel erected by E. II. Had- 



The Chicago Bench. 4S3 

dock, on the north side of Lake street, about one hundred feet 
east of Dearborn street. He also held the fall term in the same 
year. The court was held by Sidney Breese in the spring of 
1835, and in the fall, by Stephen T. Logan. In 1836, Thomas 
Ford presided atone or two terms. In 1837, he was appointed 
Judge of the Municipal Court of Chicago, a local court, created 
by the charter of the city of Chicago, passed by the Legislature 
in that year. He continued to hold this court until it was abolished 
two years later. Theophilus W. Smith, one of the Justices of the 
Supreme Court, presided at several terms of the Circuit Court 
after 1836, and Stephen A. Douglas held one term in 1S39. 
About this time the Justices of the Supreme Court were relieved 
from the duty of holding the Circuit Courts, and John Pearson 
was appointed to this circuit and continued upon it until 1831, 
when Richard M. Young again became the presiding Judge, and 
continued such until he was succeeded by Jesse B. Thomas, who 
occupied the position until his resignation in 1849, when he was 
succeeded by Hugh T. Dickey, who held the office until 1853, 
when he resigned, and Buckner S. Morris was elected to fill out 
the remainder of the term. In 1855, George Manier was elected 
to the Circuit Court, and filled out the full term of six years with 
great acceptance, when he was re-elected his own successor, but 
died before the expiration of his second term, honored and re- 
gretted by the Bar and the entire community. He was succeeded 
by Erastus S. Williams, who was elected to and served out a 
second term. 

In 1845, a new court was created, called the Cook County 
Court of Common Pleas, with jurisdiction nearly co-ordinate with 
the Circuit Court, of which Hugh T. Dickey was appointed 
Judge, who held the office until 1819, when he resigned and was 
elected to the Circuit Court. Mark Skine was elected in his 
place, and served out the unexpired term. Giles Spring was 
elected to succeed him, and held the office until his death in 1853. 
John M. "Wilson was elected to succeed him, and held the position 
until 1859, when the court was changed to the Superior Court 
of Chicago, to consist of three -judges. Wilson was continued as 
one of the judges, and Yan H. Higgins and Grant Goodrich were 
elected his associates. Judge Wilson continued to occupy the 
position by re-election until 1868, when he was succeeded by W. 
A. Porter, who died in 1873, and his place was filled by S. M. 
Moore. In 1863, Joseph E. Gary was elected in the place of 
Goodrich, and in 1865, John A. Jameson, in the place of Judge 
Higgins. Judges Gary and Jameson still occupy their respec- 
tive positions, and Sidney Smith has succeeded Judge Moore. 

In 1871, a law was passed authorizing the election of four ad- 



484 The Chicago Bench. 

ditional judges to the Cook County Circuit Court, and in the 
fall of that year Lambert Tree, John Gr. Rogers, W. W. Farweli 
and II. W. Booth, were elected to that position. Judge Tree re- 
signed before the expiration of his term of office, and Wm. K. 
McAllister was elected to till out his term. Judges Rogers and 
McAllister, in 1879, were elected their owm successors, and 
Murray F. Tuley, Thos. A. Moran and "W. IT. Barnum were 
elected in the place of Judges Williams, Farweli and Booth. 

Many of these men still survive, and have made and are mak- 
ing an enviable record as eminent and able judicial officers. Of 
those who have passed away, several attained to honorable and 
responsible political positions, and a well deserved and national 
reputation as wise and sagacious statesmen. 

Richard M. Young was elected to the United States Senate, 
and afterward became Commissioner of the General Land Office. 
Stephen A. Douglas was elected to Congress, and at once took 
rank among the ablest debaters of that body. He was afterward 
elected for several successive terms to the United States Senate. 
As a ready and powerful debater he had few superiors, and was 
for a number of years the acknowledged leader of the more liberal 
section of the Democratic party. He possessed a singularly pow- 
erful personal magnetism, and was idolized by his admirers. In 
I860 he was the candidate of the northern Democrats in oppo- 
sition to Mr. Lincoln. On the breaking out of the rebellion, he 
took a most patriotic position in support of the integrity of the 
Union, and by his bold and decisive utterances carried the mass 
of his party with him. His death in 1861 was regarded as a 
great national calamity. 

Judge Breese was also elected United States Senator, and served 
out a full term of six years. He was a man of large and varied 
learning, and high literary culture, a polished gentleman and a 
most entertaining and instructive conversationalist. In the Senate 
he took position among its ablest, wisest and most industrious 
members. To his sagacity and efforts, the State and the nation 
are largely indebted for some of their grandest enterprises of 
national progress and national prosperity. 

His judicial career was not only able and brilliant, but remark- 
able in duration. He served as Circuit and Supreme Court Judge 
for more than thirty years. His reported decisions are models of 
judicial learning and logical reasoning, polished in style and lucid 
in exposition. They constitute a proud and enduring monument 
to his memory and fame. Since the death of Abraham Lincoln, 
the decease of no man in the State has occasioned so profound 
and universal regret as that of Judge Breese, who died June 27th, 
1878. 



The Chicago Foundlings' Home. 485 

Thomas Ford was a man of conspicuous integrity, a thorough 
lawyer, of a clear and discriminating mind. He was elected Gov- 
ernor of the State, and in that position labored with zeal and per- 
sistency for the completion of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. 
His efforts were successful, but so powerful was the opposition to 
this work in the southern part of the State, it defeated his re- 
nomination for a second term. Time has fully vindicated the 
soundness of his judgment in the eyes even of his most bitter 
political enemies. Soon after his term of office expired, his 
health became inh'rrn, and in a few years after he died, in the 
flower of his manhood, profoundly respected by his friends and 
those who had been his foes. 



HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO FOUNDLINGS' HOME. 

BY GEORGE E. SHIPMAN, M. D. 

In the winter of 1868-9 a fact came to my knowledge which 
presented two things to me very clearly. The fact was a child 
about ten days old, which was left stark naked on a wharf in one 
of the coldest nights of the season. I was called to see it in the 
morning, and found it very badly frozen. The police officer who 
found it, had great difficulty to persuade any charity to take care 
of it, but finally the Protestant Orphan Asylum consented. 

It is not to be wondered at, that it was done rather reluctantly, 
and that the other public institutions refused it outright. A 
charity quite prepared to do justice to a child a year, or even six 
months old, is not at all prepared to take care of a foundling. 
In looking up the case I found, (1), that many children were de- 
stroyed every year, and (2), that this was partly because there was 
no place where they could be left — no one who would take care of 
them. The coroner informed me, about that time, that he held 
an inquest on about one foundling a day. 

On reflecting upon these facts, it seemed a great sin and shame 
that such a state of things should exist. I laid the case before 
many of my friends — they all thought as I did, that something 
ought to be done, but who was to do it, or how it was to be done, 
no one seemed to know! 

In January, 1871, however, it was made very clear to me that 
I was to assume the responsibility of this work, and that I was 
to look to God alone for the means to carry it on. To tell the 
whole truth, I had not intended to open a public institution, but 
only a private one, keeping it as much as possible unknown. A 
friend, however, who got wind of my project, published it in all 
the city papers, and I was thus called upon to take charge of all 
the foundlings of the city. 



4S6 The Chicago Foundlings' Home. 

On the 31st of January, 1871, the Home was opened at 54 
South Green street. Some friends who had seen the notice in the 
paper, sent me $77.38, and a patient gave me $100 on the day 
the Home was opened, as she had previously promised. 

Before two months had ended, our quarters were found too small, 
and we moved to the corner of Sangamon and Eandolph streets, 
where we soon found that two two-story houses were none too large. 

In May, 1872, a proposition was sent to me from the Relief 
and Aid Society, that if I would have the Home incorporated 
they would give $10,000 for a building. The proposition was 
accepted, the Home was incorporated, the money received, and 
the lot on South Wood street, now occupied by the Home, was 
purchased. The erection of the building was commenced as soon 
as the plans could be matured, and it was finished sufficiently for 
occupation in May, 1874, costing $50,079.64. $20,000, in ad- 
dition to the first donation, were given in various sums, from time 
to time, by the Relief and Aid Society, and the balance was do- 
nated by the citizens, or earned or collected by the Ladies' Union 
Aid Society. 

The incorporation of the Home has made no change in its inter- 
nal management. The corporators have met annually, when we 
had a quorum, and elected me Superintendent, so that the whole 
charge and control of the work has been left to me, except the sell- 
ing of the real estate, which can only be done by order of the Board. 
Besides $50,076.64, given for the land, and building, $45,- 
491.21 have baen given for the current expenses of the Home, 
the total amount prior to Jan'y 1st, 1880, being $95,570.85. No 
fund has ever been raised to sustain the work, and no person is 
pledged to sustain it, or any part of it, but we have depended 
upon what the Lord sent from day to day in answer to prayer. 
The Home has never employed any solicitors, directly or indi- 
rectly. If any friends have asked others to give, it has been en- 
tirely on their own responsibility and motion. 

Since the Home was opened, it has taken in over 2,000 babies, 
most of whom have been under a year old. About 800 of these 
have been adopted, many of them into families of wealth and in- 
telligence. Many have been returned to their parents, as a few 
days' experience sometimes shows the mother that she could not do 
without the baby. Besides this, the " Home" has given a home 
and shelter to women at a time of great sorrow and destitution. 
These have stayed with us from a day or two to 1, 2, or 3 years. 
Many of them come from the hospitals, where they are sheltered 
for the shortest possible time, and are then dismissed with their 
helpless little ones, homeless and friendless. To such the Home 
has extended open arms, giving them a warm welcome, and 
caring for them until they could find situations elsewhere. 



The Chicago Public Schools. 4S7 



HISTORY OF CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

BY DUANE DOTY. 

Twenty-two years ago, the Hon. W. H. Wells, then superin- 
tendent of public instruction in this city, prepared an historical 
sketch of the schools, from which w T e take the following facts: 

The first regular tuition given in Chicago was in the winter of 
1810-11, by Iiobert A. Forsyth, and the first pupil was the late 
John H. Kinzie. The teacher was thirteen years of age, and the 
pupil six. Mr. Forsyth afterwards became a paymaster in the 
army. The principal aid employed in this course of private les- 
sons, was a spelling-book that had been brought from Detroit to 
Chicago in a chest of tea. The first school taught in Chicago 
was opened in the autumn of 1816, by William L. Cox, a dis- 
charged soldier, in a log-house belonging to Mr. John Kinzie. 
The house had been used as a bakery, and was situated near the 
present crossing of ^ine and Michigan streets. The pupils com- 
posing this school were John II. Kinzie, with two of his sisters 
and one brother, and three or four children from the fort. In 
1820 there was a small school in the garrison, taught by a ser- 
geant. In 1829, Charles II. Beaubien, son of J. B. Beaubien, 
agent of the American Fur Company, taught a small family 
school near the garrison, embracing the children of Messrs. J. 
B. and Mark Beaubien. In June, 1830, Mr. Stephen Forbes 
opened a school near the place now marked by the meeting of 
Randolph street and Michigan avenue. This w T as on the west 
bank of the Chicago river, the outlet of which then flowed in a 
southerly direction, and emptied near the foot of Madison street. 
The school numbered about twenty-five pupils. It was taught in 
a low, gloomy log building, containing five rooms. The walls 
of the building were afterwards enlivened by a tapestry of white 
cotton sheeting. Mr. Forbes was assisted by his wife, and resi- 
ded in the school-house. After continuing the school about a 
year, he was succeeded by a Mr. Foot. Mr. Forbes was after- 
wards sheriff of Cook county. 

In October, 1831, Mr. Kichard I. Hamilton was appointed 
commissioner of school lands for Cook county, and the school 
x 'und remained in his charge till 1840. In the spring of 1833, 
Col. Hamilton and Col. Owen employed Mr. John Watkins to 
teach a small school in the North Division, near the old Indian 
agency house. Those gentlemen afterwards built a house on the 



488 The Chicago Public Schools. 

north bank of the river, just east of Clark street, where Mr. 
Watkins continued his school. This was the first house built for 
a school in Chicago. In the autumn of 1833 Miss Eliza Chappel 
opened an infant school in a log-house on South Water street, a 
short distance west of the grounds belonging to the fort. In the 
latter part of 1833, Mr. G-. T. Sproat came from Boston, and 
opened an English and classical school for boys in a small church 
on Water street, near Franklin. In March, 1834, Miss Sarah L. 
Warren was engaged as an assistant in Mr. Sproat's school. In 
one of her letters she says: u I boarded at Elder Freeman's. His 
house must have been situated four or five blocks southeast of the 
school, near Mr. Snow's, with scarce a house between. What few 
buildings there w r ere then were mostly on Water street. I used 
to go across without regard to streets. It was not uncommon, in 
going to and from school, to see prairie wolves, and we could 
hear them howl at any time in the day. We were frequently 
ann,oyed by Indians; but the great difficulty we had to encoun- 
ter was mud. Rubbers were of no account, and I was obliged 
to have a pair of men's boots made." 

The school section of the original township is situated near the 
center of the city. In October, 1833, all but four of the one hun- 
dred and forty-two blocks of this section, were sold at auction for 
$38,865, on a credit of one, two and three years. The remaining 
four blocks are (1880), valued at $2,500,000. The value of that 
portion sold cannot now be less than 65 millions of dollars. 
Had Chicago kept one quarter of these school lands, she would 
have had the richest school fund of any city on earth, and her 
schools would have been absolutely free for all time. In 1834 an 
appropriation was made to Miss Chajjpel from the school fund 
of the town, and the school taught by her at that time, in the 
First Presbyterian Church, on the west side of Clark street, be- 
tween Lake and Randolph streets, was properly the first public 
school of Chicago. In the winter of 1834-5, Miss Chappel 
resigned her charge, and it passed into the hands of Miss Ruth 
Leavenworth. This school received much aid and sympathy 
from John S. Wright, the same whose faith in the future grand- 
cur of Chicago was proverbial. He built a house for its use, 
which was situated on the west side of Clark street, just south of 
Lake street. 

In 1834, the school in the Baptist church, on Water street, be- 
came a public school. During this year, Mr. Sproat was suc- 
ceeded by Dr. Henry Yanderbogart, who resigned before the 
close of the year, and was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Wright. In 
1835 the school was placed in charge of Mr. James Mc Clellan. 
Mrs. Warren was engaged as an assistant in this school, from 



The Chicago Public Schools. 489 

March 1834, to June 1S36. In the winter of 1834-5, Mr. 
George Davis had a school over a store on Lake street,, be- 
tween Dearborn and Clark streets. In 1835 Mr. Davis taught 
a public school in the Presbyterian church, on Clark street, and 
the school of Mr. Watkins, which had now become a public school, 
was also continued on the north side of the river. In February, 
1S35, the legislature enacted for township thirty-nine, and range 
fourteen East, that the legal voters of the town were to elect an- 
nually, on the first Monday in June, either five or seven persons, 
to be school inspectors; these inspectors were to examine teach- 
ers, and lay the town out into school districts. Each district was to 
elect three trustees to take charge of the school business of the 
districts, and see that the schools werefree. The trustees had 
power, to levy and collect taxes for school purposes. 

In November, 1835, the town was divided into four school 
districts. District No. 1 was the North Division of the city. 
The whole number of schools in the town at that time was seven. 
In the spring of 1836, Miss Frances L. Willard opened a school 
in Mr. Wright's building for the instruction of young ladies. 
Mrs. Louisa Gifford was employed as an assistant in a primary 
department. In the spring of 1837, this school became a public 
one, passing into the hands of Miss Gilford, Miss Willard open- 
ing another school of a similar character. In 1836, and till 
March, 1837, Mr. John Brown taught a private school near the 
corner of Dearborn and Wolcott streets. In 1S37, Mr. Edward 
Murphy opened a private school in the same building. This 
school also became a public one, and Mr. Murphy taught it at 
an annual salary of $800, from August, 1837, to November, 1838. 
Mr. McClellan, who taught in the Baptist' church, on Water 
street, in 1835, continued to teach a public school till 1838. 

In March, 1837, Chicago became a city. By the conditions of 
the charter, the common council were made commissioners of 
schools for the city. They were to appoint annually not less than 
five, nor more than twelve school inspectors. The voters still 
elected three school trustees in each district. 

The first board of education, after the incorporation of the city, 
was elected Mav 12, 1S37, and consisted of the following mem- 
bers: Thomas Wright, N. H. Bolles, John Gage, T. K. Hubbard, 
I. T. Hinton, Francis Peyton, G. W. Chadwick, B. Huntoon, R. 
J. Hamilton and W. LL Brown. The teachers in the public 
schools in 1837, in addition to those already named, were Miss 
Sarah Kellogg, and Messrs. A. Steel Hopkins, George C. Collins, 
Hiram Baker, C. S. Bailey and Samuel C. Bennet. In 1838, 
public schools were taught by Messrs. McClellan, Murphy, Ben- 
net, Collins, Bailey, Calvin DeWolf and Thomas Hoyne. 



490 The Chicago Public Schools. 

In 1839, a special act of the legislature laid the foundation of 
our present school system. In addition to the school fund, the 
council was authorized to levy a tax for school purposes to supply 
the inadequacy of the school fund for the payment of teachers. 
In Feb. 27th, 1840, William H. Brown was appointed school 
agent, and assumed the charge of the school fund of the city. 
This office he held for thirteen years, and carefully managed the 
trust placed in his keeping. The first Board of Education under 
the new organization consisted of William Jones, J. Young 
Scamrnon, Isaac N. Arnold, Nathan H. Bolles, John Gray, J. 
Ii. Scott and Hiram Hugunin. The first meeting of this Board 
of Education was held in Nov., 1840, and William Jones was 
elected chairman. It is at that date that the written records of 
the public schools commence. 

In December, 1840, Mr. A. G. Rumsey and H. B. Perkins 
were employed as teachers in the South Division, A. D. Sturte- 
vant in the West Division, and Mr. A. C. Dunbar in the North 
Division. The salary paid each of these teachers was §33.33 a 
month. From the regulations adopted by the Board of Educa- 
tion in 1841, it appears that the schools were kept five clays and 
and a half a week, and the amount of vacation allowed in a year 
was four weeks. Instruction in vocal music was first introduced 
in 1842, Mr. N. Gilbert being the teacher. From that day to 
this, captious opposition has been made to the study of vocal mu- 
sic. In 1843 the Council ordered the Board to dispense with it. 
In March, 1S4T, a committee was designated to inquire into the 
expediency of making vocal music one of the permanent branch- 
es to be taught in the public schools; a motion was made to in- 
clude dancing. 

In 1844 the first public school-house was erected on Madison 
street, between Dearborn and State streets. This house was 
built through the efforts of Mr. Ira Miltimore, at that time a 
member of the council. It was regarded by most of the citizens 
as a foolish thing to do, and the building was for a time spoken 
of as Miltimore's folly, and one of Chicago's mayors recommended 
in his annual message that the council either sell the building or 
convert it into an insane asylum, and build one or two small 
houses suited to the wants of the city. In 1850 teachers' insti- 
tutes were first established. In 1841 the public schools were 
taught by four male teachers; five years later, or in 1846, they 
were taught by three men and six women. In January, 1851, 
four male teachers and twenty female teachers were employed. 
The rapid increase from that day to this, June, 1880, is shown in 
the fact that we now employ 900 regular teachers, and have en- 
rolled this year nearly 60,000 pupils, and the schools now occupy 



The Chicago Public Schools. 491 

72 buildings, either owned or rented by the city. In May, 1854, 
Mr. John C. Dore was elected superintendent of schools, at a sal- 
ary of $1,500 per annum; Mr. John D. Philbrick was first in- 
vited to the position, but declined it. Mr. Dore at once intro- 
duced a system of gradation and classification of the schools. 
Mr. Dore resigned his office in March, 1856, and in June of that 
year, Hon. W. H. "Wells was appointed Superintendent. This 
officer perfected what Mr. Dore had begun. He prepared a course 
of study, and by his zeal and intelligence, and thorough knowl- 
edge of his profession, he not only placed the Chicago schools in 
the front rank of schools, but by his works and writings he has 
made a deeper impression on the graded schools of this country 
than any other man; and the most successful school men of this 
generation are those who have taken him as a guiae. 

Mr. Wells resigned his office, June, 1S64, and Mr. Josiah L. 
Pickard, who had for six years been Superintendent of Schools 
for Wisconsin, succeeded him. Mr. Pickard was a gentleman of 
broad culture, and successful experience as a teacher, and the 
Chicago schools prospered under his direction. Mr. Pickard re- 
signed, June, 1877, and accepted the Presidency of the Iowa State 
University. Mr. Duane Doty, who for ten years had been Su- 
perintendent of Schools in Detroit, Michigan, a graduate of the 
classical department of the Michigan University, was elected Su- 
perintendent, September, 1877, and is the present (June, 1880,) 
incumbent of the office. 

A few public spirited citizens have already by donation or be- 
quest, established perpetual special funds, the interest on which 
is used for the purchase of school books for indigent children, and 
for books of reference, maps and apparatus, etc., for the public 
schools. The Mosely Fund, given by the late F. Mosely, amounts 
to $11,000. The Foster Medal Fund, given by the late Dr. John 
H. Foster, amounts to $1,000. The Jones Fund, given by the 
late William Jones, amounts to $1,000. The Newberry Fund, 
given by the late W. L. Newberry, amounts to $1,000. The Jona- 
than Burr Fund amounts to $19,671. The Michael Keese Fund 
amounts to $2,000. The Carpenter Fund, given by Philo Car- 
penter, Esq., amounts to $1,000. Similar donations and bequests 
will doubtless be made from time to time. The aggregate of the 
present fund is now $37,000. 



492 



The Chicago Public Schools. 



The following table, giving the population of the city, the 
school enrollment of pupils, the cost of the schools for the year, 
and the number of teachers during each, year, for the last forty 
years, will convey a good idea of the city's growth: 









Total amount paid for 






Total Population 


Number Enrolled 


Current Expenses 


Number of 




of the City. 


in the Schools. 


of the Schools. 


Teachers. 


1837 


4,170 








18*8 










1839 










1840 


4,479 


317 






1811 




410 


$2,676.75 


5 


1842 




531 


3,225.90 


7 


1848 


7,580 


808 


3,099.97 


7 


1844 




915 


3,006.22 


8 


1845 


12,088 


1,051 


3,413.45 


9 


1816 


14,169 


1,107 


5,635.87 


13 


1S47 


16,859 


1,317 


4,248.76 


18 


1848 


20,023 


1,517 


5,7,0.82 


18 


1849 


23,047 


1,794 


5,195.50 


18 


1850 


29,963 


1,919 


6,037.97 


21 


1851 




2,287 


7,398.97 


25 


1852 




2,404 


10.704.04 


29 


1853 


59,130 


3.086 


12; 129.59 


34 


Dec. 31, 1854 




3,500 


14,254.72 


35 


Dec. 31, 1855 


80.000 


6,826 


16,546.13 


42 


Dec. 31, 1855 


84,113 


8,577 


29,720.00 




1857 










Feb. 1, 1858 




10,786 


45,701.00 


81 


Feb. 1, 1859 




12,873 


58,686.80 


101 


Feb. 1, I860 


109,026 


14,199 


69,630.53 


123 


Feb. 1, 1861 




16,547 


81,533.75 


139 


Dec. 31, 1862 


138,186 


16,441 


86,755.32 


160 


Dec. 31, 1863 




17,521 


92,378.86 


187 


Dec. 31, 1864 




21,188 


113,305.24 


212 


Aug. 31, 1865 


178,492 


29,080 


176,003.73 


240 


Aug. 31, 1866 


200,418 


24,851 


219,198.66 


265 


Aug. 31, 1867 




27,260 


296,672.89 


319 


Julyl, 1868 


242,373 


29,954 


352,001.80 


401 


Julyl, 1869 


252,054 


34,740 


446.786.50 


481 


Julyl, 1870 


806,605 


38,989 


527,741.60 


537 


Julyl, 1871 




40,832 


547,461.74 


572 


Julyl, 1872 


367,396 


38,035 


479.444.44 


476 


Julyl, 1873 




44,091 


524.702.09 


564 


Julyl, 1874 




47.963 


588,643.11 


640 


Julyl, 1875 


39\408 


49,121 


662,093.47 


700 


Julyl, 1^76 


407,661 


51,128 


710,628.19 


762 


Julyl, 1877 




53,529 


551,621.17 


730 


Julyl, 1878 


436,731 


55,109 


579.508.68 


797 


Julyl, 1879 




56,587 


630,711.17 


851 


Julvl. 1880* 


500.000* 


60.000* 




900 



* Estimated. 
Our schools have continued to prosper, and now hold a rank 
second to none in anv citv of this country, or of the world. 



The Chicago Public Schools. 493 

The total amount assessed for school tax in the city from 1S40 
to 1845, inclusive, was: 

In 1840 $ T86.9S 

11 1841 ' 1,662.27 

" 1842 1,518.50 

" 1S43 % 785.24 

" 1844 5,722.08 

" 1845 3,165.02 

A total in six years of $13,650.09 

The increase in 1S44 and 1845 was for building the Dearborn 
School. In November, 1846, the board enacted as follows: 

"No scholars shall be admitted into school unless they appear 
within a quarter of an hour of the time prescribed by the rules 
for commencing the schools." 

The first step towards a uniformity of text-books to be used in 
the schools, was taken Dec. 9, 1840, when "Worcester's Primer, 
Parley's First, Second and Third Books of History, and an ele- 
mentary Speller, were adopted. 

With a trained corps of teachers, now, June 1st, 1880, num- 
bering nine hundi*ed, with an annual increase in membership of 
pupils of about three thousand, with a course of study and a body 
of rules which experience has brought into being, with a board 
of education consisting of fifteen members appointed by the Mayor, 
and confirmed by the council, with officers of long and successful 
experience in school work, there is every reason for the belief 
that our schools will continue to maintain the high standard of 
excellence now conceded to them. 

This standard has been reached through many generations of 
culture and progress, made in other countries than the United 
States, for it can hardly be denied that the pupils themselves are 
the essential material out of which the model school system may 
be moulded, and inasmuch as Chicago is indebted to foreign 
countries for no inconsiderable part of her pupils, she is equally 
indebted to them for that varied intellect and talent that charac- 
terizes her schools. Her well arranged school houses, of modern 
style of architecture, have also contributed their due share towards 
this end, and her salubrious climate, so invigorating to body and 
mind, must not be lost sight of among these factors. 



49tt The Bailroad System of the Northwest. 



THE RAILROAD SYSTEM OF THE NORTHWEST. 

The -new method of cheap and expeditious transportation over- 
land bj means of railroads, has not yet been long enough in use 
to determine practically what changes in the great world of pro- 
gress, are destined to grow from it, or rather what new elements 
of aggrandizement and accumulation of wealth and influence are 
j to come from it. Dating from the earliest historical records, as 
• they faintly glimmer through the uncertainty of Orientalism, we 
find the Phoenicians, about 700 years before the Christian era, 
bringing wealth and fame to their nation by means of their com- 
merce, in which branch of industry they were as far as known, 
the world's pioneers. 

Their country was situated at the western extremity of the 
Mediterranean Sea and the northeastern extremity of the Red Sea, 
which locality gave them a great advantage over any other people 
in the distribution of their merchandise. This stimulated their 
manufacturing interests as well as their fine arts and scholastic 
sciences, and for several centuries this people though their whole 
country was not larger than the State of Illinois, represented the 
intelligence and handicraft of the world.* 

Southern Europe, including the Ancient Britons, paid tribute 
to them in the purchase of their fabrics, and learned of them 
and the Arabians,f the elements of science. 

For this proud position they were indebted to their natural 
channels of communication with the outside world afforded by 
the two great seas that reached their territory from two nearly 
opposite directions. Physically the great northwest by means of 
the lakes and St. Lawrence river, and the Mississippi holds a rela- 
tive position to the world not unlike theirs, when commerce was 
confined to inland seas, or the tedious process of caravans over 
land. That the Phoenecians have not held their original high 
position till the present day is due to the later discoveries by 
which the ocean could be navigated, thereby giving any other 
nation which had a sea-coast an equal advantage with them. 

* Heroditus defines their territory as a belt of land about 50 miles wide, along 
the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean, and runs their boundary south of 
this extreme end. to the northeastern extremity of the Red Sea, which he called 
the Arabian Gulf. Thence he runs it to the eastern delta of the Nile, about 60 
miles above its mouth, thence along its meanders to the sea. 

•j-The Arabians inhabited the country between the Red Sea and the Indian 
Ocean. 



The Railroad System of the Northwest. 495 

After the Grecian and Roman civilization, the English, by means 
of their easily defended island and their commercial enterprise, 
substantially monopolized the commerce of the world, and by 
this means rose to a higher position in the scale of nations than 
the Phcenecians ever held, and, it is not too ranch to say, retained 
it till the late era of railroads became so important a means of 
transportation as to rival any advantages which even the mistress 
of the seas can claim. Not that either one means of transporta- 
tion can ever be independent of the other, but that both must be 
in harmonious alliance to achieve the highest destinies of states 
is manifest; and where on the face of broad nature can be found 
a place where facilities for lake, river and railroad communica- 
tion are so advantageously combined as in the northwest? Our 
present railroad system has grown into comparative maturity so 
rapidly that we have hardly had time to take breath and reduce 
to an economic theory our vantage ground, and the question is 
often asked, What is to be the end of all this? 

Not a few think they see in it an engine of power wherewith 
to concentrate the wealth of the country into a few hands; con- 
trol legislation and undermine liberty. If there is real danger 
that such a calamity is in store for us, the danger of it is in- 
creased by the suggestion. But do facts show that any such con- 
dition has yet been put in process of development? On the con- 
trary, if the two interests compare notes, will it not be found that 
the wealth and influence of the landholders in accumulating 
power has at least kept pace with that of the railroads. Lands 
and their products have more than doubled in value by their in- 
troduction, and as long as this equitable division of the profits 
continues, the landowners need feel no jealousy toward the rail- 
roads, and instead of any special legislation to protect the interest 
of either the absence of all legislation as to rivalship of interest is 
all that is wanted to insure the rights of both. 

The last thing that would advance the interest of the railroads 
would be to make their rates oppressive to their patrons, for they 
are not above the subtle force of public opinion, nor have they 
any immunity from the rivalship of carriers by river and lake 
transportation, a means for the carriage of heavy products, suffi- 
ciently provided by nature in the great interior to set railroad 
monopolies at defiance, if any should arise; and every interest 
here and all classes, as equal sharers in this great heritage with 
which the plentitude of nature has endowed us, may act in con- 
cert with the common end in view, to establish in our midst all 
that is ennobling in the domicile and in the state. 

Our locality, though not the precise geographical centre of 
North America, is the hydraulic centre from which rivers flow to 



496 The Railroad System of the Northwest. 

its circumference. It is also the diverging centre from which 
railroads reach the seaboard portals to the great interior from 
every direction available to the commerce of the world. Had it 
not have been the first, it never could have been the second: a 
proof that our facilities for navigation hold the railroads in abey- 
ance. This great almoner, that called our railroads into being, 
will ever be their ally, as long as the servant is not above his 
master; and fortified by this transcendent power, the railroads 
have as yet only begun their career. What they have already 
accomplished may be summed up as follows: In our immediate 
midst they have penetrated through low lands and over rolling 
plains wherever the rich soil of the country gave encouragement 
to farmers and villagers, and to them have Drought the piano, 
etc., to infuse the soul with gentleness and stimulate the higher 
virtues of the rising generation, and have taken the surplus pro- 
ducts of the farmer in exchange; among all classes they have 
awakened a laudable ambition to rise in the scale of manhood 
and womanhood, by bringing to them the newspaper and maga- 
zine from Boston, New York, Philadelphia and London in 
exchange for the creature comforts so necessary for those clois- 
tered book worms and artists who have produced these literary 
luxuries, perhaps in some dingy garret. In this way the rail- 
roads have helped to fraternize the whole human race into good 
fellowship with each other; have helped to round off the tangent 
points of human character, which grew from isolation, and to 
diffuse the fruits of culture and education throughout the coun- 
tries which they traverse. But the most efficient service they 
render to our country may be found in the influence they exert 
on the unity of the nation. "Whatever may be the caprices by 
which any section of it may be dissatisfied with another, there is 
a binding force in the reciprocity which grows from trading rela- 
tions and the interchange of courtesies, which comes through the 
despatch of railroad communication, that subordinates the feuds 
of petty quarrels to its fiat, and restores equilibrium to minds 
distempered with overreaching ambition, envy or political charla- 
tanism. 

This decree is ingrained by social laws into our railroad sys- 
tem; and by the law of supply and demand, mutual protection is 
guaranteed to the carriers and their patrons, with all the ad- 
vantage to the patrons of rivers, lakes and canals, and an honest 
public opinion as allies if the carriers are too grasping. It would 
be premature to speculate as to when we are to become the seat 
of the fine arts through the gifts from nature, which have placed 
us where we now are; for there is so much rough hewing to be 
done first. But that this is to come some day is as certain as that 
human aspirations obey the passionate will. 



Railroad Taxation. 49 » 

The mind is too feeble to take in at one view the grandeur of 
the future destiny that must come to us by means of our match- 
less transportation system under the direction of a considerate 
public mind. Our influence is already felt on the eastern shores 
of Asia, and it has spread its toils through the workshops of Eu- 
rope, from whence their artisans bow with obsequious respect, 
and follow the course of empire as a necessity. This is only the 
beginning. The end will be the subordination of the untamed 
forces of nature in the great interior to the intelligent rule of 
man in the majesty of his power — united under a government 
bound into integrity by an inflexible centre, which is the north- 
west. 

The folio-wing- statements show the manner in which railroads are taxed in 
each of the Northwestern States: 

Chicago, 111., June 2, 1880. 
R. Blanchard, Wheaton, 111., 

Dear Sir: — Replying- to your inquiry concerning the methods of taxing rail- 
road property in the States of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, I have to report 
to you that in Iowa a railroad property is assessed as a unit at a certain rate per 
mile. This assessment is made by a board consisting of the Governor, Secretary 
of State, State Auditor and State Treasurer, and is termed the Executive Coun- 
cil. This assessment includes all property, both real and personal, belonging to 
the railroad company, and used exclusively in the operation of the road. The 
valuation is fixed at a certain sum per mile of main track, and the number of 
miles of main track in any county, town, or lesser taxing district, determines the 
amount of the railroad assessment in said district. The fact that machine or re- 
pair shops, or round houses, or other valuable improvements connected with the 
operation of a railroad, are built at any point on the road, does not increase the 
assessment in that particular locality. All such property is taken into account 
by the Executive Councd in determining the value of the road per mile, but that 
valuation having been fixed, each mile of road is, for purposes of taxation, of the 
same value as every other mile. Against the valuation found as above indica- 
ted, tax^s are extended at the same rates and for the same purposes, as in the 
case of the property of private individuals. 

In the state of Wisconsin the taxation of railroad property is imposed in the 
form of a license for operating the road. The annual license fee is graded as 
follows: 

1st. Four per cent, of the gross earnings of all railroads whose gross earn- 
ings equator exceed $3000 per mile per annum of operated railroad. 

2nd. Five dollars per mile of operated railroad, of all railroads whose gross 
earnings exceed $1,500 per mile per annum, and are less than $3,000 per 
mile per annum of operated road, and in addition two per cent, of then- 
gross earnings in excess of fifteen hundred dollars per mile per annum. 

3rd. All lands owned by railroad companies are subject to special assess- 
ments for local improvements in cities aud villages; and all lands owned or 
claimed by any railroad company, but not adjoining the track of such com- 
pany, are subject to all taxes. 

In the state of Minnesota there are two methods of taxing railroad property, 
and railroad companies are permitted their choice of the plans provided by 
law. Railroad property may be assessed by the several local assessors at the 
same time and in the same manner that the property of private individuals is 
assessed. _ Taxes are levied on such assessments as in the case of private parties. 

There isalso a general statute of which railroad companies may avail them- 
selves, which provides that the railroad, its appurtenances and appendages, and 
all property, estate, and effects of a railway corporation, held or used for, in, 



498 Railroad Taxation. 

or about, the construction, equipment, renewal, repair, or for the maintaining 
or operating- of the railroad, and including- the lands granted to such company 
to aid in the construction of such railroad, and the stock and capital of such 
company, shall be forever exempt from all taxation, and from all assessments; 
and in lieu of such taxes and assessments, such railroad company shall, during 
the first three years of the operation of its road, pay into the treasury of the 
state, one per cent, of the gross earnings of said railroad, and shall during the 
seven years next ensuing after the expiration of said three years, pay into the 
treasury of the state, two per cent, of the gross earnings of said railroad, and 
after the expiration of the ten years above provided for, said railroad shall pay 
into the treasury of the state, three per centum of the gross earnings of said 
railroad. And the payment of such per centum annually as aforesaid, shall be 
in full of all taxation and assessment whatever. 

I have given you above a brief abstract of the laws respecting taxation of 
railway property in the states of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. While the 
information is not given in sufficient detail to enable a novjce to understand 
how the machinery is worked, it is nevertheless sufficiently explicit to enable any 
one to understand the principles involved in the collection of revenue from this 
class of property. Yours truly, 

FRANK P. CRANDON, 
Tax Commissioner of the C. d-N. W. Rtj. Co. 

Chicago, May 19, 1880. 
Rurus BlanciiaPvD : 

Dear Sir: — In reply to your queries relative to taxation of railroads in Illi- 
nois I have to say, that the Illinois Central Railroad Company pays to the 
State Treasurer a specific per centum of its gross earnings in lieu of all other 
taxation. 

The property of all other railroad lines in the state is valued by the assessors 
at about the same rate as the property of private citizens; the assessment thus 
made is reported to the State Board of Equalization, who review the lists and 
correct any apparent discrepancies, and their final action upon the case generally 
proves quite satisfactory to all parties. 

At an early day, assessors in some localities seemed to desire to assess rail- 
road property much higher than other property, but they learned that such 
action increased their own burden, by rendering it necessary for the roads to 
increase their tariffs wherever any special increase of cost was made. 

Yours respectfully, 

A. T. HALL, Treasurer. 

Chicago, 111., May 18, 1880. 
Rupus Blanchaed, Wheaton, 111.: 

Dear Sir: — At your request I furnish you information touching the assess- 
ment of railroad property in Indiana. 

Railroad corporations are required to return sworn lists, or schedules, of the 
taxable property of the company, showing the property held for right-of-way — 
the length of the main and all side and second tracks and turn outs, in each 
county, city or town, through or into which, the same may run; also, the num- 
ber of locomotives, passenger, and all other cars; describing them. 

The right-of-way, including the superstructures, side or second tracks, sta- 
tion and improvements on the right-of-way, is denominated "railroad track," 
which is listed and taxed in the several counties, townships, cities and towns in 
proportion that the length of the main track in such city, county or town bears 
to the whole length of the road in the State, except the value of the side or sec- 
ond tracks, turnouts, and all station houses, depots, machine shops, or all other 
buildings belonging to the road, shall be taxed in such county, city or town. 

The movable property belonging to a railroad company shall be held to be 
pers nal property, and shall be denominated " rolling stock." It shall be listed 
and taxed in the several counties, townships, cities and towns, in the proportion 



Railroad Taxation. 499 

that the main track used or operated in such township, city or town bears to 
the whole length of the road owned or operated by the company. The schedule 
must state the number of miles upon which it is used in the State, and the 
number of miles upon which it is used elsewhere. The tools, materials for 
repair, and all other personal property, except "rolling; stock," shall be listed 
in the township, city or town where the same may be on the first of April. The 
real estate of the company, except what is denominated "railroad track," shall 
be listed in the city, county or town where the same may be located. Such 
personal property and real estate is assessed in the same manner as the prop- 
erty of other persons. The State Board of Equalization, consisting- of the Gov- 
ernor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary, Auditor and Treasurer of State, assess 
property denominated "railroad track " and "rolling stock." The amount so 
assessed is certified to the proper County Auditor by the State Auditor and by the 
County Auditor to the several cities, townships and towns in his county. 

There are other details, but it is believed the above will give a correct general 
idea of the manner of assessing and collecting taxes upon railroad property. 

The law has been in force since December, 1872. 

After the reports have been made by the several railroads the state board 
gives notice of the time when it will make the assessments, at which time the 
companies can be heard if they shall so desire. I think the assessments, as a 
general thing, have been satisfactory. Yours truly, 

A. L. OSBORK 



FROM REPORT OX RAILROAD TAXATIOX BY J. Q. ADAMS, Jr., 

OHIO. 

All property is taxed on a basis of its true value in money. The real estate 
of each railroad is taxed in the place where it lies; but personal property is 
held to include the road bed, water and wood stations, and all other such realty 
as is necessary for the daily running operation of the road. A board consist- 
ing of county auditors of the counties through which any railroad runs, esti- 
mates the value of all the personal property of the railroad company, including 
the above named items, and apportions it among the counties and municipaiities 
through which it runs, so that to each "shall be apportioned such part thereof 
as shall equalize the relative value of the real estate, structures and stationary 
personal property of such railroad company" in the state, and so that the 
rolling stock (including that hired or run under control of the company) shall 
be apportioned to each county and place in proportion to its part of the whole 
roacl in the state. And when only part of the railroad is in the state, the prin- 
cipal *sutn to be apportioned is the proportion of the road in Ohio to the whole 
road. When the road is wholly in one county the auditor thereof acts as a 
board. 

The county boards report to a state board of equalization, which has power 
to raise or reduce the valuation of each road, provided that the aggregate valu- 
ation cannot be reduced. Xo appeal is provided. 

There is no franchise tax, nor tax on receipts; and stock in the hands of 
individuals is taxed to them. 

MICHIGAN". 

In lieu of all taxes, except those on real estate not used for railroad purposes, 
a tax is laid of (2) two per cent, on gross earnings not exceeding $2, (JOG per 
mile, and of (o) three per cent, on gross earnings exceeding that sum. There 
is, also, a tax of three per cent, on receipts from passengers carried in any 
palace or sleeping car, or any car for which an extra price is paid; and a tax of 
two per cent, on gross receipts derived from the leasing or hiring of cars by any 
"special," "fast," "colored," or other freight line. 



500 



Coupon Tickets. 



Real estate not used for railroad purposes is subject to local taxes where it lies. 
There is no tax on the personal property of railroad companies, nor on franchise, 
nor on rolling stock. Nor is stock taxed in the hands of its owners. There is 
no apportionment of tax among counties or municipalities, the whole amount 
being paid to the state and devoted to special purposes. 

The railroads incorported before 1850 were subject to an annual tax of t of 
one per cent, on their capital stock and all loans used in construction. The 
Lake Shore and the Michigan Central are still taxed in this way. 



THE RAILWAY TICKET COUPON SYSTEM. 

(By A. E. Little, of the Chicago and Northwestern Ry.) 

A mere cursory examination of the '* Records of the National General Ticket 
Agents' Association," should readily satisfy the "veteran traveler" that he is 
under lasting obligations to that energetic body of "evolutionists " — the Gen- 
eral Ticket Agents — for their unceasing labors, for the past thirty years or 
more, in perfecting a thorough and comprehensive system of ticketing passen- 
gers, and the checking of baggage, between almost any of the railway points 
in the United States and Canadas; but however desirable it might be to under- 
take to convince the traveling public that it should rest content with the great 
benefits accruing from "through ticketing/' instead of seeking additional ad- 
vantages from the numerous discrepancies inherent in the system, such an 
effort would be beyond the scope of this article, which is intended to be merely 
a brief outline of the complex and costly " coupon" system in force on nearly 
all of the railways of this country. Below is given a specimen of the modern 
coupon ticket "contract/' 



Subject to the following Contract: 

1st. In selling this Ticket this Company acta as Agent and is not 
responsible beyond its own line. 

2nd. No Stop over will be allowed hereon unless specially provided 
for by the local regulations of the lines over which it reads. 

3d. It is not good for passage if any alterations whatever are made 
hereon. 

4th. If fhi«> contract and its coupons bear no "L" 
punch cancellations, the passenger is entitled to all 
the privileges accorded to holders of unlimited 
tickets of litte class. 

5th. If the coupons are marked or cancelled "2" class, the nassen- 
ger is entitled to Kecond Class passasro only. 

f>th. If this Contract and its Coupons are' cancelled with an **Ii" 
Punch, it indicates that this ticket was sold at a reduced rate, 
and that it is not transferable, and niust he used on «»r 
before the expiration of date as cancelled on the 
margin hereof If not so used, or if more than one 
date is cancelled it is void. 

7th. None of the Companies represented in this Ticket will assume 
any liability on baggage except for wearing apparel, and then only 
for a sum not exceeding 8100. 

8th. The Coupons belonging to this Ticket will not be received 
for passage if detached. 

98 | Form 925. W. JBT. BBTAK, Gen'l Ticket Agt 



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31J30 29|28J27 26J25 24 23 22 



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17 18 19 20 21 



That portion of the ticket in which the signature of the General Ticket Agent 
appears is called the " contract," as it recites the terms under which the ticket 
can be used; to this contract are added as many " coupons " as there are sepa- 
rate railway or transportation lines in the route of the entire ticket, thus giv- 
ing each line participating in carrying the passenger to his destination, a 
voucher against the company issuing the ticket, for the service performed; while 
each coupon shows the line over which, and the points between which it is 



Coupon Tickets. 501 

good, yet such coupon is good for passage only when attached to the contract 
governing its use. In early days these coupons bore the signature of the Gen- 
eral Ticket Agent of the issuing road, thus making them complete tickets in 
themselves, but upon finding that the sharp speculative instinct of the average 
American had discovered that nearly all railways participating in "through" 
passenger traffic, generally received for such service a, less sum than they 
charged for local traffic between the points named on coupons, and that such a 
situation of affairs naturally encouraged "speculators " to buy through tickets 
by the lot, to convert the same into "split tickets," to supply local demand, the 
railways found it absolutely necessary, for the protection of their local traffic, to 
adopt the above style of contract ticket, and to rigidly enforce therule of refus- 
ing coupons when same were presented without the contract originally accom- 
panying them. In the enforcement of this necessary rule, the railways have 
been sustained by decisions of different state courts. 

For the purpose of keeping perfect records of all tickets printed., issued, or 
sold, each route must have a separate '" Form Number," and each ticket of any 
" Form" should have a consecutive number: On the ticket marked " A," 925 is 
the number of the route, and 98 the number of the ticket. As these tickets are 
charged to and reported by agents by " Form," and by consecutive numbers, 
and as the issuing road uses the same numbers in reporting to the roads over 
which the tickets are issued, a perfect check can be had on every individual 
ticket by all parties interested. In addition to showing on the coupons of inter- 
mediate lines the points between which such coupons are good, the final destin- 
ation of the ticket should also be given, as the proportion accruing to the inter- 
mediate lines may be different by different " forms 1 ' or routes, although the in- 
termediate service performed may be the same in each case. 

While the use of the contract coupon ticket prevents speculation in detaching 
the "coupons" and selling same, it does not prevent a passenger from using the 
ticket for a portion of the prescribed trip, and selling the remainder of the 
ticket; and this fact has been long known and taken advantage of by our en- 
terprising countrymen, who have been but too often aided and encouraged by 
many of the railways that entered into an insane competition for through busi- 
ness. This discrepancy has recently been corrected by the employment of tick- 
ets limited as to time of use, in cases where too great a difference exist be- 
tween the rates as made by the short line and the sums of the local rates of the 
roads composing the long line, desiring to meet the competition. As will be 
seen on sample tickets, this time limitation is effectively made by cancellation 
of the date to which the ticket is good. 

Many of the "trunk lines" of this country are carrying stocks of thousands 
of different "forms 1 ' of coupon tickets, by as many different routes, and reach- 
ing to all parts of the United States and Can ad as known to the enterprising 
ticket seller, and every year adds largely to the multiplicity of forms, by the 
addition of new routes to old and new points. Indeed, so great has this bur- 
den become that railway companies can no longer afford to print separate 
" forms" for each destination, but are rapidly adopting what is known as the 
" combination coupon, " which bear the general features of the ticket already 
described, but allows the same "form" to be used for many destinations and 
classes, as will be seen by specimen " contract " marked " B." ? 



502 



Coupon Tickets. 



Good for One Passage to the Poin and of the Class Designated by Punch Harks on the 
Contract and ( oupnns attached, Tvlien offic ally .tamped. 

SCBJFCT TO TBS FOLLOTN I>G LIMIfATIOSS : 

1st. In selling this Ticket this Company acts as Agent, and is not responsible 
beyond its own line. 

2d. It is subject to the Stop-over regulations of the lines over which it reads. 

3d. It is void if altered. 

4tb. It is not limited as to time unless the date of expiration is indicated on 
the margin hereof by cancellation made with Same Punch that is used to indi- 
cate the Destination; when so punched.it is good only for the time designated. 

5th. If the Coupons are marked or cancelled '"2" Class, the holder is entitled 
to Second Class passage only, otherwise it is First Class. 

6th. Liabilities on Baggage limited to wearing apparel, and to a sum not ex- 
ceeding $100. 

7th. The Coupons belonging to this Ticket will not be received for passage 
if detached. JOHN SMITH, General Ticket Agent. 



1SSO. 



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1882. 



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1887. 




Having' now described the coupon ticket — its use and abuses — a brief state- 
ment of how it is treated in the accounts of a railway will be in order. 

A record of all "forms" printed is kept in a book called a "Chart of Forms," 
which gives the "form number" of each route, the destination of each form, 
and the names of the different lines composing each route, together with their 
junctional points. The general ticket agents chart must be as correct as that 
of the navigator, otherwise ( he will be swamped in a sea of papers, and this 
chart is the constant guide of the "stock clerk" in ordering and supplying tickets. 

The rates governing the sale of coupon tickets are made by the general ticket 
agents at their stated meetings. And, as a general rule, the rates between 
common points are based upon the sum of the local fares of the road compos- 
ing the short line between said points. Yet this rule does not always obtain. 
Sometimes a fixed rate per mile by_ the short line will be made irrespectively 
of the local rates of the roads in the line. Sometimes a round rate will 
be made because it looks to be just about the " correct thing, " and then again 
the public sometimes has a potent influence in naming rates for a season, but, 
for the purpose of this article, it maybe said that the "short lines" usually 
predominate in making rates, and in divisions of same every line claims that it 
is entitled to its "pro rata" proportion between competing ^points by its very 
shortestline to such points. 

It has already been remarked that coupon tickets are charged to ticket agents 
by "form" and "consecutive" numbers, and that they are required to report 
their sales, by the same numbers and to give the destination of tickets. They 
are required to report promptly after the close of each month; when their re- 
ports have been examined as to the use of authorized rates, checked with the 
"home " or company's coupon, to see that all tickets indicated by those cou- 
pons have been accounted for, the reports are entered upon the "Apportion- 
ment book " for a proper division among all the roads interested in the sales. 
This book is of mammoth proportions, and has columns for each road partici- 
pating in an interchange business; the sales of each agent are entered in detail 
and each form sold, or as many of each form as are sold by the same agent are 
made the subject of a separate division among the roads over which the form 
reads. When the book is balanced it will show in detail the division of every 
form of tickets sold, carried to the proper column, so that a report to the roads 
scld over can be readily transcribed. These reports are usually forwarded 
to the lines interested about twenty days after the close of each month, and, 



Railroad History, 503 

by common consent, all errors discovered in same are corrected in the following 
month's report, if notified so as to make correction in that month, although er- 
rors will be adjusted at any time upon notice, but the original report must stand 
as originally made up. This rule is made to enable railway companies to write 
up the General Books and adjust balances without vexatious delays. After an 
interchange of ticket reports the balances are subject to sight draft, or if the 
balance is not large enough to go to the trouble of drawing for same, it can go 
into the account current of the compamy from which the balance is clue. 

While settlements are made by the reports as originally made up, the reports 
are carefully checked with the tickets collected at the earliest practicable mo- 
ment, and all claims for the non-reporting of tickets, or for the use of unauthor- 
ised rates and divisions are forwarded to the delinquent road, and a letter- 
press copy of such claim is kept and held in view until the same is satisfactorily 
adjusted. 

The limit allowed for this article will not admit of any reference to the system 
of checking "through baggage", which is an important adjunct of the coupon 
system and one of its costliest appendages, nor will there be space in which to 
notice the important labors of the General Passenger Agent, who devotes his 
time almost entirely to labor arising out of the system of "through ticketing'*, 
suffice it to say that there is nothing connected with the "system", but that is 
at once costly and complicated for the railway companies, and nowhere except 
in this country are the passengers wants so liberally and carefully provided for. 



RAILROAD SYSTEH OF CHICAGO, WITH ITS EARLY HISTORY. 

BY AUGUSTIXE W. WRIGHT. 

The Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, chartered January 16th, 
1836 (ere Chicago had received her charter as a city), may claim 
the honor of being her first railroad. Its primary incentive was 
to advance the price of real estate, and promote the prosperity 
of Chicago. Its capital stock was one hundred thousand dollars, 
with power to increase it to one million dollars. It was optional 
with the company to make portions of it with branches of the 
same, a toll-road, to be operated either with horse or steam power. 

Wm. Bennett, Thos. Drummond, J. C. Goodhue, Peter Semple, 
J. M. Turner and J. B. Thompson, Jr., were authorized as com- 
missioners to receive subscriptions to the stock. Their charter 
allowed three years from its date, as the limit of the time in 
which work on it should be commenced, to comply with which 
provision the company commenced the then questionable enter- 
prise in 1838. 

The first problem was how to get a foundation through the 
great slough that intervened between the little incipient town 
and the ridge on which Oak Park now stands. It was then 
deemed impossible to find a firm bottom on these shaky lands, 
and piles were resorted to with longitudinal stringers, to secure 
support from one to another. Thus the work began along Madi- 
son street, but was soon abandoned as premature, and no farther 



504: Railroad History. 

attempts to prosecute it were made till 1846, when ¥m. B. 
Ogclen, John B. Turner, for whom Turner Junction was named, 
and Stephen F. Gale, purchased the charter from Messrs. Town- 
send and Mather, of New York, who, up to this time, held it 
with the assets of the company. Ten thousand dollars in stock 
was to be paid down, and ten thousand on its completion to Fox 
River. A preliminary survey was made, and the work put in 
charge of Richard P. Morgan. The next year, on the 5th of 
April, a Board of Directors was appointed, and books were soon 
opened for subscription to the stock. Here fresh difficulties 
came up. Many thought the road would injure the retail trade 
of Chicago (which was all she then had), by facilitating the 
transportation of goods to country merchants, and the latter 
feared that their trade would suffer by such quick and easy access 
to Chicago as the road would give to the farmers. Despite these 
difficulties, through the efforts of Benj. TV". Raymond and John 
B. Turner, in their success in negotiating loans in New York, 
and the reluctant home subscriptions to the stock, the road was 
finally completed to Cottage Hill, sixteen miles distant, in De- 
cember, 1849, to which place their rickety old second-hand engine 
and cars (the best they were able to procure), ran on a slip-shod 
foundation of wooden stringers faced with strap iron. This was 
Chicago's first railroad. 

Chicago's connections by railroad with Lake Erie were now 
considered of the first importance. The Michigan Southern 
Railroad, begun in 1837, and the Michigan Central, begun in 
1S12, were sharp rivals in this enterprise. The cars of the lat- 
ter reached Chicago May 21st, 1852, and those of the former the 
next day, both of which were greeted with shouts of welcome as 
substantial stimulants to prosperity. 

This generation can hardly appreciate all that Chicago owes to 
the pioneers who built its railroads, and among the number the 
name of John B. Turner should ever be retained in grateful 
remembrance, together with Benj. TV. Raymond, Stephen F. 
Gale, and others. The following table gives the name of each 
railroad centering at Chicago, with the date of its arrival, to- 
gether with other statistics, indicated on the head lines. It is 
the result of much research amongst the voluminous records of 
railroad literature now extant, and may serve the reader as a 
kind of multum in parvo history of one of the great elements 
of the prosperity of the country in which all are interested- 



Railroad History. 



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506 The Daily News. 

THE DAILY NEWS. 

BY M. E. STONE. 

The first number of the Daily News made its appearance upon 
the streets of Chicago on the afternoon of December 20th, IS 75. 
It was founded by Percy R. Meggy, Win. E. Dougherty and 
Melville E. Stone. The experiment of publishing a one-cent 
paper had been tried before in Chicago and had failed; in the 
present instance, it was by no means promising. There were four 
other English afternoon dailies in the field — the Journal, Post, 
Telegrajpli and Courier. Early in 1S76, Mr. Dougherty sold his in- 
terest and later in the same year, Mr. Meggy followed his example, 
leaving Mr. Stone for a time sole proprietor. Tie soon disposed 
of an interest to Mr. Victor F. Lawson, and in August, 1876, the 
firm became Victor F. Lawson & Co., under which title the pub- 
lication has continued without change of partners to this date. 
Mr. Lawson has charge of the business department, while Mr. 
Stone directs the editorial and mechanical branches. 

In August, 1877, the proprietors of ike Daily News purchased 
and absorbed the Chicago Evening Post, into which, three years 
before, the Chicago Evening Mail had been merged. 

The Chicago Daily News has been remarkable for its rapid 
growth in circulation and influence, and is generally regarded as 
the most remarkable journalistic success of the time. Until the 
exciting days of the electoral count, in the winter of 1876-7, the 
average daily circulation fell below 15,000. It then rapidly in- 
creased, until, for the year 1877, it averaged over 22,000; in 1S78 
it averaged 38,000; in 1879 it reached an average of 45,000, and 
for the first half of 1880 it has exceeded 55,000. Its average 
daily issue now exceeds that of any other newspaper published 
west of Philadelphia, and is surpassed in the United States by 
not more than five of the daily papers. 

The Daily News is, and always has been, independent in politics. 



HARBOR AND RIVER CONVENTION. 

This convention met at Chicago July 5, 1847. Its object was 
to influence the federal government to make appropriations for 
the improvement of Rivers and Harbors. 

James L. Barton, of Buffalo, N. Y., was on motion of William 
B. Ogden, elected temporary chairman, and A. B. Chambers, of 
St. Louis, and Hans Crocker, of Milwaukee, were elected secre- 
taries pro tern. The Hon. Edward Bates was made President of 
the convention, with Vice Presidents from seventeen states repre- 
sented, and ten secretaries. 

Letters were read from Thomas II. Benton, Silas Wright, 
Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, Gen. Cass and Daniel Webster. 



Harbor and Elver Convention. 507 

Elaborate speeches were made by John C. Spencer, Judge 
John McLean, of Ohio, by Edward Bates and others, and resolu- 
tions in favor of appropriations for the improvement by the Na- 
tional Government, of Rivers and Harbors were adopted. 

Says Norman C. Perkins, in his history of this convention: 

" In 1846 President Polk had vetoed the bill, which passed both 
houses of Congress, making appropriations amounting to nearly 
a million and a half of dollars for various works of internal im- 
provement, in the way of removing obstructions to navigation in 
rivers and constructing harbors, and a plan was devised for hold- 
ing a mammoth convention at Chicago for the purpose of giving 
expression to the popular disapproval of the veto, and of encour- 
aging Congress to persist in the course it had undertaken. The 
opening day was fixed for the Fourth of July, and delegates were 
chosen from all parts of the Union. The Whigs everywhere 
favored the doctrine of internal improvements by the general 
government, and in the West that was good Democratic doc- 
trine, too; so the convention was intended to be non-partisan. 
Indeed, so jealously was its political neutrality guarded, that the 
late Norman B. Judd, who was then a Democrat, made a fiery 
and effective protest in the convention against its being used or 
treated as in any way connected with the Whig party. 

The convention was held on the court house square, under a 
huge tent that covered about two-thirds of the block. The old 
frame court house then stood on the northest corner of the square, 
and the jail stood on the northwest corner. The old brick Sher- 
man House stood where its modern namesake stands, and from 
that westward to LaSalle street, the space was occupied by nar- 
row wooden shanties, a story and a half or two stories in height. 
On the southwest corner of Randolph and LaSalle streets — long 
known as " Sharp Corner " — there was one of a row of similar 
shanties fronting north on Randolph street. To the south of 
this were several two-story brick houses, one of which, on the 
ground now occupied by the building No. 90 LaSalle street, be- 
longed to Judge Jesse B. Thomas, whose father was president of 
the first Constitutional Convention in Illinois, and whose sons 
settled in Chicago, where one of them still remains. On the 
northwest corner of Washington and LaSalle streets stood the 
residence of Tuthill King, w T ho still owns the land, subject to a 
ground lease, while on the corner now occupied by the Union 
National Bank, P. F. W. Peck lived. Opposite to the court 
house square, on Washington street, were the residences of B. W. 
Raymond, Alexander White and a few others. About that time 
the First Baptist church was built, which stood on the corner 
now occupied by the Chamber of Commerce. On the corner 
next to Clark street was the First Presbyterian church, which was 



508 Harbor and River Convention. 

afterward converted into Smith & Nixon's piano warerooms, and 
into offices. Across Clark street stood the First Methodist 
church, which was removed to make way for a church with secu- 
lar attachments, very much like the one now standing there. On 
the east side of Clark street there was a yellow brick house, be- 
longing to a man named Goodrich, on the corner of Washington 
street, where Larmon Block afterward stood, and to the north of 
that was a block of three or four blue brick dwellings, owned by 
F. 0. Sherman, while on the corner of Randolph was the two- 
story frame building belonging to George W. Cobb, and occu- 
pied chiefly by law offices. Such were the surroundings of court 
house square in 1847. The tent spoken of was probably made 
by George Foster, who at that time was a ship chandler here. 

The President of the convention was Edward Bates, of Mis- 
souri, who made the great speech of the occasion, and who was 
afterwards President Lincoln's first Attorney-General. Mr. 
Bates was, it will be remembered, a candidate for the Presiden- 
tial nomination against Mr. Lincoln, and was supported in his 
candidacy by his old friend, Horace Greeley, whom he had met 
at this Chicago convention inl847. It was said that Mr. Gree- 
ley's trip to Chicago at that time first gave him the exalted idea 
of the natural advantages of this part of the country, which after- 
wards found expression in his oft-repeated, and now historic hor- 
tation of " Go West, young man." John C. Spencer was also a 
delegate from New York, and was reckoned one of the ablest men 
in that very remarkable gathering. His son, Champion Spen- 
cer, was afterwards a member of the law firm of Monroe & 
Spencer in this city, for many years. Another member of the 
convention was Thomas Butler King, who at that time was one 
of the three Whig members of the House of Representatives from 
Georgia. The other two were Alexander H. Stephens and Robert 
Toombs. Another prominent delegate was Governor Bebb of 
Ohio. King made a speech in reply to those who claimed that 
Congress had no authority to improve harbors except upon the sea- 
board. " Talk about salt w T ater," said he, " why, right here in 
your own harbor, for the lack of sufficient protection, there have 
been enough cargoes of salt lost to make the whole of Lake Michi- 
gan as salt as the Atlantic Ocean !" 

About the only man who was injured by the convention was Gen- 
eral Cass. He was invited to be present, but replied as follows: 

Detroit, May 29. 
Dear Sir: I am much obliged to you for your kind " attention in transmit- 
ting- me an invitation to attend the convention on internal improvements, 
which will meet in Chicago in July. Circumstances, however, will put it out 
of my power to be present at that time." 

These " circumstances " were very unfortunate ones for Gen- 



The Illinois St. Andrews Society. 509 

era] Cass. lie chanced to "be running for the Presidency the 
next year, and his letter was dug up and used as a very effective 
campaign document against him. There is in the possession of 
the Chicago Historical Society a memento of the campaign of 
184S, in the shape of a tiny pamphlet of twelve pages, about an 
inch square, containing this famous letter in English, French and 
German. The title page is thus: "General Cass' letter to the 
River and Harbor Convention. Fifth Edition. Chicago: Jour- 
nal Press, 1S4S." 



A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE ILLINOIS ST. ANDREWS 

SOCIETY. 

" The benevolent feelings implanted by the great Creator in the 
hearts of men are given for practical development, and if it be 
true that no braver hearts beat than those which throb under a 
Scottish plaid, much more so is it universally conceded to be true 
that no where does the development of benevolent feelings find 
readier expression than amongst Scotchmen. 

The expression of these feelings and promptings is not confined 
to individuals. It assumes an organized form, becomes more ef- 
ficient, and concentrates individual effort into well digested and 
laudable systems of benevolence. 

Especially is this true of Scotchmen in foreign lands; for ever 
since the organization in 1657, of 'The Scottish Charitable So- 
ciety of Boston ' (the oldest organization of the kind on the 
North American continent), wherever a few Scotchmen are lo- 
cated together, an immediate desire manifests itself (and is always 
acted upon) to form a charitable or St. Andrews Society, for the 
purpose of relieving their distressed fellow-countrymen.' 7 

On the 26th of January, 1846, the Illinois St. Andrews Soci- 
ety was organized, only one of the original members of which 
now survives, George Anderson, Esq., the postmaster of the South 
Division post office, in the city of Chicago. 

A Constitution and the code of by-laws were adopted in 1850, 
and revised and amended in 1858, and again in 1872, after the 
great fire of October, 1871. 

The Society was incorporated by special act of the Legislature 
of Illinois, in February, 1853. 

Since the first organization, in 1846, the Socetiy has never failed 
to hold its regular anniversary meeting on St. Andrews day. 

Erom a weakly child the Society has grown into a strong and 
stalwart man. Members in large numbers have flocked to its 
standard, and its position has now become so well assured and 
permanent that no worthy applicant for its bounty is ever turned 
away with empty hands. 



510 The Illinois St. Andrews Society. 

But not alone on the living are its benefits conferred. In the 
Cemetery at Kose Hill, that beautiful " city of the dead," the 
Society since 1S58 lias owned a burial place, where the friendless 
and destitute Scotchman dying in a foreign land amongst stran- 
gers, " far from the loved ones at home," is tenderly cared for, and 
his ashes repose in peace in the grounds and under the shadow 
of the monument of this most excellent charity, with a stone 
marked to indicate the spot where he sleeps. Over 70 persons 
now " after life's fitful fever sleep well " in these grounds. 

The active membership of the society now numbers nearly 400, 
and is constantly increasing. 

Since the organization in 1846, the following named gentlemen 
have been Presidents of the Society. Those marked * deceased: 

The Year endins 
November 30th. 
1846, *Georg-e Steel. 



1847, * Alexander Brand. 

1848, * James Michie. 

1849, * Alexander Brand. 

1850, *Greoro-e Steel. 

1851, * Alexander Brand. 

1852, * Alexander Brand. 

1853, George Anderson. 

1854, *John McGlashan. 

1855, John H. Kedzie. 

1856, John Alston. 

1857, John Alston. 

1858, Robert Hervey. 

1859, * Andrew Harvie. 

1860, John R. Valentine. 

1861, Dugald Stewart. 

1862, Robert Hervey. 



1863, *Gen. Daniel Cameron. 

1864, William James. 

1865, Robert Hervey. 

1866, William Stewart. 

1867, *Hugh Maealister. 

1868, *Dr. John Maealister. 

1869, Robert Hervey. 

1870, Gen. John McArthur. 

1871, Gen. John McArthur. 

1872, Gen. John McArthur. 

1873, Robert Clark. 

1874, Robert Hervey. 

1875, Robert Hervey. 

1876, Godfrey McDonald. 

1877, Godfrey McDonald. 

1878, Daniel R. Cameron. 

1879, Daniel R. Cameron. 

1880, Alexander Kirkland. 



For nearly fifteen years, Wm. M. Dale has been treasurer, and 
for about twelve years John Stewart has been secretary. The so- 
ciety has a large permanent or reserved fund invested in U. S. 
bonds, and a benevolent or charitable fund adequate to all pur- 
poses of relief. 

The means of the society are derived from the annual sub- 
scriptions of the members ($3), the fees on initiation ($2), and 
the profits derived from the anniversary dinners on St. Andrews 
day, and the annual balls given by the Society for the benefit of 
the ladies, as they are not admitted to the annual dinners. 

The Society is in a very flourishing and prosperous condition. 

The Marquis of Lome, Governor General of Canada, and 
Robert Gordon, Esq., for many years the president of the St. 
Andrews Society of the state of Sew York, are honorary mem- 
bers of the Society; and this brief sketch of its history is with 
pleasure furnished toRufns Elancharcl, for insertion in his forth- 
coming work on the history of Chicago, by 

Eobt. Hervey. 



The Illinois Stoats Zeitung. 511 

THE ILLINOIS STAATS ZEITUNG. 

BY WASHINGTON IIESING. 

The rapid growth of Chicago is not exemplified in a better 
way than by the increase in wealth, in influence and in political 
power of the press of Chicago. Where but less than a genera- 
tion ago the press, if it be even worthy of that name, was of 
doubtful existence and of no importance whatever; the press of 
to-day compares most favorably in stability and in standing 
with that of any city in the world. 

This is not only the case with the English press, but it is also 
the case with the German press, of which the Illinois Staats Zei- 
tung, the exponent of the principles of the German -Americans 
of the Northwest, is the representative. 

The Illinois Staats Zeitung was founded in the spring of 1848, 
by Eobert Hceffgen, the entire capital invested amounting to two 
hundred dollars. 

Mr. Hceffgen was assisted by an apprentice, who received/T5 cents 
per week. In those days it was incumbent upon the proprietor 
of the newspaper, not only to direct the general management, 
but to do nearly, if not all, the work. 

At first the Illinois Staats Zeitung appeared as a weekly, 
thus enabling one man to do all the work. Mr. Hceffgen col- 
lected the advertisements and solicited subscriptions, set his own 
type, ran his own press, and having completed his paper indoors, 
started out upon the street with his entire edition under his arm, 
to distribute the same to his subscribers. It might be cited as an 
example worthy of emulation at the present time, when the 
price of paper is agitating the minds of publishers, that sub- 
scribers were requested to send in rags to pay for their subscrip- 
tions, these in turn being traded to the dealer in print paper. In 
this way the rags were saved, and the publisher always received 
more for his paper in rags than he would have got in cash. 

In the fall of 1848, Dr. Helimuth then being the editor, the 
Illinois Staats Zeitung was the only German newspaper in the 
United States to discover in the Buffalo platform the principles, 
upon which afterwards was founded the .Republican party. The 
county of Cook gave Van Buren a majority of 1,200, no little 
credit of which is due to the Illinois Staats Zeitung, for its 
staunch and unswerving advocacy of the principles laid down in 
that campaign. After the presidential election, Arno Yoss was 
the editor, who was succeeded in 1849 by Herman Kriege and in 
1850, Dr. Helimuth again assumed the editorial management. 
Under his charge, the paper appeared twice a week until Aug. 
25th, 1851, when Geo. Schneider became connected with the pa- 
per, who changed it into a daily, with but 70 subscribers, its 
weekly list being only a little over 200. 



512 The Illinois Staats Zeltung. 

In 1853, the circulation of the Illinois Staats Zeitung had in- 
creased to 300, which necessitated the employment of three (3) 
carriers, one of whom is still to-day in the employ of the com- 
pany. Within the same territory where formerly there were but 
100 subscribers, now there are 3,400. 

In 1854, the number of subscribers had increased to 800. 

Geo. Hillgaertner was at this time associated with Geo. 
Schneider. As the Illinois Staats Zeitung was the first German 
paper to discover the cardinal principles of the Republican par- 
ty in the Buffalo Platform, so it was the first to oppose the Ne- 
braska Bill, and to begin the determined opposition to Doug- 
las. It was mainly instrumental in leading the Germans into 
the Republican party, and, in 1856, was using its utmost endea- 
vors in behalf of Fremont. In that ever memorable campaign 
between Lincoln and Douglas, in 1858, no paper did more for 
the success of Mr. Lincoln than the Illinois Staats Zeitung, be- 
cause the Germans held the balance of power. 

From this time on, began to develop the influence of the Illi- 
nois Staats Zeitung. It has been often felt in the common 
council, the Legislature, but especially in political movements 
in Cook county, for more than once has it been opposed by the 
entire Anglo-American press, and yet has carried the day. 

In 1861, Mr. Wm. Rapp became editor of the Illinois Staats 
Zeitung. In the same year, Mr. Lorenz Brentano bought out Mr. 
Hoeffgen's interest, and assumed the editorial management. In 
the following year, Mr. Geo. Schneider sold his interest to Mr. A. 
O. Hesing. Messrs. Brentano and Hesing were associated to- 
gether until 1867, when Mr. A. C. Llesing purchased Mr. Bren- 
tano's interest. In this year, Mr. Hermann Raster was engaged 
as chief editor, which position he fills to-day. 

The great fire in 1871 claimed the Illinois Staats Zeitung as 
one of its victims. Its loss w r as total, yet it was among the first 
of the Chicago dailies to appear, and that, too, within 48 hours 
after the fire had ceased. Preparations were soon made for per- 
manent quarters. On the tenth of March, 1873, the present im- 
posing structure on the northeast corner of Washington and 5th 
Ave. was completed and occupied. The cost of the same, with 
machinery, presses, etc., amounted to nearly $300,000. 

The Illinois Staats Zeitung of to-day is among the Germ an - 
American newspapers second only to the New York Staats 
Zeitung in wealth and in circulation, while in ability, in power 
and in influence, it is not equalled, much less surpassed, by any 
German newspaper in the United States. The combined circu- 
lation of all the editions of the Illinois Staats Zeitung amounts 
to over 55,000, being larger than that of any German newspaper 
published west of the Alleghany Mountains. 



The Chicago River and its Bridges. 



THE CHICAGO RIVER AND ITS BRIDGES. 

The entire southern extremity of Lake Michigan is one con- 
tinuous waste of drifting sands. At no place are to be found 
rugged shores where deep rivers empty the surplus floods of ex- 
tensive water-sheds, but, on the contrary, the water-shed of the 
western shore of the southern portion of the lake is a narrow 
belt along its immediate margin. Except the Calumet, the Chi- 
cago River is its principal channel, and, small and insignificant 
as this stream is, it has a history, a mission and a destiny 
never equaled by any other small stream, except, perhaps, the 
river Thames, on whose bank the largest city in the world has 
been built. Fortunately the economic forces of nature gave a 
depth to the Chicago River sufficient to float large vessels, thus 
making it available for the commercial wants of a great city; 
and the peculiar features of this stream, with its two branches 
uniting into one from opposite directions, have imparted to it 
the substantial uses of an artificial canal, traversing the business 
portions of a large city, for the purpose of facilitating the trans- 
shipment of the cerials of the Northwest, as well as the other 
heavy materials of our commerce. So marked is the conveni- 
ence of this natural channel for this purpose, that, perhaps it is 
not too much to say that had an artificial canal been built for the 
purposes for which the river is used, it could hardly have been 
planned to suit the convenience of trade better than nature has 
fashioned it for us; and here it should not be forgotten, that, 
owing to the diminutive water-shed of the river, a uniform 
height of surface is secured, with scarce two feet variation be- 
tween high and low water, which condition greatly facilitates the 
transfer of grain, and perfects facilities for the elevator system, 
for which Chicago is famous. 

As the city began to grow along the banks of this stream, 
something besides the birch bark canoe or the dugout was re- 
quired for crossing it, especially as vehicles drawn by horses were 
coming into use, and, in 1832, Mark Beaubien, who was not fond 
of hard work, but was willing to sit at the receipt of custom in 
a ferry boat, and wait the long hours of the day to secure the 
lees of the occasional traveler across the river, established a ferry 
at the fork. The main landing was on the south side, from which 
passengers could be ferried over to either the North or West 
Side. 

It was stipulated that residents of Cook County should be 



514: The Chicago Uiver and its Bridges. 

passed free, and consequently Mr. Beaubien's fees came from 
strangers who were passing through the place or had taken up a 
temporary residence there. His ferry-boat consisted of a scow 
which he purchased of Mr. Samuel Miller for $65, and he gave 
bonds in the sum of §200 for the faithful performance of his du- 
ties, James Kinzie signing as his voucher. But any hopes of a 
permanent income from this ferry were soon frustrated; for the 
same year it was established (1832) a bridge was built across the 
north branch on Water street, and one across the south branch 
between Randolph and Lake streets, at which place it stood till 
1840. The latter cost 8486.20, the whole of which was raised by 
subscription, the Pottowattomies contributing $200 towards it, 
which proved them to be pioneers in Chicago thrift and improve- 
ment, besides being aborigines of the soil. The first bridge across 
the Main river was built at Dearborn street, the precise date of 
wdrich cannot be ascertained, but it was probably in 1S33. It 
was a bone of contention between the Xorth and South Divisions, 
on what ground has not come within the knowledge of the writer, 
but it is certain that as a compromise the Council Board of the 
town caused it to be removed in 1835 and established it on Clark 
street, which official act, probably growing out of some ambitious 
private interests of property-holders in the early days, has made 
Clark, instead of Dearborn street, a great thoroughfare filled with 
stores for miles in extent. In 1S47 Wells street bridge was built 
by private subscription, Walter L. Xewbury being the principal 
contributor. The Randolph and Madison street bridges were 
built the same year, whether by private subscription or with the 
city funds is not known, as those early records of the city were 
destroyed in the great fire. The three last were floating bridges, 
swinging from a pivot on one shore by means of a leverage at- 
tached to a capstan, round which coiled the rope that drew the 
bridge open for vessels to pass and closed after them. These 
clumsy contrivances, however, were only to remain a few years. 
First the Clark street and next the Randolph street floats gave 
way to the late pivoted style of bridges, whirling from a pier in 
the centre of the river, and in 1857 the Madison street float also 
was substituted for an iron bridge on the late plan, the first of 
its kind built of this material introduced into Chicago. 

These latter bridges were a great improvement on the old un- 
wieldy structures, and only one more requirement was wanting 
to make them all that could be expected and that was to elevate 
them sufficiently above the water to admit the passage of canal 
boats and tugs, which requisition was in due time brought about 
as a pressing necessity, as will appear from the following: 



History of the Ulcer Tunnels of Chicago. 515 



HISTORY OF THE RIVER TUNNELS OF CHICAGO. 

BY E. S. CHESBBOUGH. 
WASHINGTON STREET RIVER TUNNEL. 

The first bridges across the Chicago River and its branches 
were floating structures, popularly known as "tub bridges." 
which, when closed, did not allow the passage of vessels of any 
size. The next kind were similar to the present, turning on their 
centers, but placed so low as scarcely to allow a canal-boat to pass 
under them, and had to be opened for every tug or larger vessel. 
As the commerce of the city increased, the crossing of the river 
was more and more frequently interrupted, but the rights of nav- 
igation being considered then paramount to all others on the riv- 
er, vessels could not be detained at all by the bridges, no matter 
how great the inconvenience to land travel or transportation. At 
length, after a few bridges had been built more elevated above 
the water than the first, an ordinance was passed requiring the 
tugs to lower their chimneys in passing them when they had no 
vessel in tow. This ordinance met with great opposition from 
tug-masters at first, so that for a day or two they refused to tow 
any vessels in or out of the river. But soon this reasonable re- 
quirement was acquiesced in, and consequently much relief was 
afforded to the passage of vehicles across the river. Notwith- 
standing this relief, however, the views which then obtained with 
regard to the unlawfulness of detaining vessels at all at the 
bridges, and the constantly increasing demands of commerce — 
both on the water and the land — seemed to make it imperative 
that one or more tunnels, for the passage of vehicles, should be 
constructed under the river. 

Among the earliest efforts for tunneling under the river was 
that of a company formed in 1S53, at the head of which was 
Hon. Wm. B.'Ogden. Messrs. Wm. Gooding, Ed. F. Tracy and 
Thos. C. Clarke proposed plans for the work ; Mr. Clarke's 
was, for a structure principally of wrought iron, which it was 
understood the company thought most favorably of, but no de- 
cided steps toward the carrying out of any plan were taken at 
first. Afterwards the elevation of the bridges, and the ordinance 
with regard to the tugs, having afforded so much relief to land 
travel, it was seriously doubted if any company could obtain a 
sufficient revenue to justify the construction of a tunnel under 
the river. Between the spring of 1861 and that of 1866, various 



516 History of the River Tunnels of Chicago. 

projects were presented to the City Council, and most of them 
were referred to the Board of Public Works. A member of this 
Board, himself an engineer — Mr. J. J. Gindele — submitted a 
plan, which was referred to the City Engineer, with instructions 
to confer with other engineers on the subject, and report to the 
Board his views with regard to the best plan to be adopted. The 
City Engineer, after careful investigation of various projects, 
recommended a plan which was substantially Mr. Grindele 7 s, add- 
ing to it a stronger roof and the sub-tunnel for safer drainage. 
The Board adopted this plan and proceeded to let the work, all 
necessary ordinances having been previously passed by the City 
Council, which had, after much discussion, fixed upon Washing- 
ton Street for the site. 

The plan of this structure includes open approaches at each 
end, two driveways and one footway under the river, and be- 
tween the driveways and each open approach a large single arch- 
way or covered approach, which, together with the open ap- 
proaches, are only for driveways. The footway out has entirely 
separate entrances, by means of a steep incline and stairway, 
near to and on each side of the river. The double arches under 
the river were adopted for safety, economy, and ease of grade. 
They are each 11 feet wide and 15 feet high,* with perpendicular 
sides. The upper arches have three centres, and the inverts are 
segments of 10 feet radius. The covered approach on each side 
of the river is contracted in the first, 40 feet from the double- 
arched driveway, from a width of 23^ feet, and height of 20-J feet, 
to 19 J feet width and 18 feet 10 inches in height, and continues 
so to the open approach. The footway is elevated under the 
middle of the river 5 feet above the driveway. It is 10 feet 
wide and 10 feet 10 inches high,f and otherwise shaped like the 
driveways. The thickness of the perpendicular wall or pier be- 
tween the driveways is 2 feet; also that between the south drive- 
way and the footway. The river section is 222 feet long. The 
upper arches, inverts, piers and facings of abutments are all of 
brick-work laid in cement. The backs of the abutments are of 
rubble, laid in cement. The foundations are all of concrete. 
The abutments under the river are 7 feet thick. The arches and 
inverts there are 22 inches thick. The spandrels of the upper 
arches are formed of rubble masonry, which is brought to a 
smooth upper surface, then coated with common lime mortar, 
and then covered with a coating of asphalt mastic, made accord- 
ing to rules observed by the United States engineers in covering 
•casements. Over the mastic another layer of lime mortar, and 

- Above invert, or 13 feet above pavement, 
f Above invert, or 8 feet above plank walk. 



History of the River' Tunnels of Chicago. 517 

then a flagging course of limestone 10 inches thick, was laid to 
prevent the dragging of anchors from injuring the masonry of 
the upper arches. This work was intended to be so strong that 
if a vessel loaded with iron should sink upon the tunnel, the 
structure would not give way. 

The arches of the covered approaches each side of the river 
are 30 inches thick on the sides and 22 inches on top. The abut- 
ments of these arches are 7 feet 2 inches thick at their bottoms, 
and diminished by steps upwards to 6 feet 7 inches. The invert 
is 18 inches thick ordinarily, 22 inches under the widest part. 
The upper portion of these arches was covered with a coating 
of mastic, less costly and less carefully laid on than that under 
the river. The east covered approach is 310 feet long, and the 
west covered approach is 402 feet long. 

At the joining of the river portion of the tunnel on each side 
with the covered approaches, solid stone dock walls were run up 
to 8 feet above low water, and placed on lines that had been 
previously established for a comprehensive plan of widening 
and straightening the Chicago River and its branches. The esti- 
mated .cost of this much-needed widening and the difficulty of 
determining who should pay for it, have been so great as to pre- 
vent it from being carried out thus far, and the general desire for 
it seems to have diminished very much. 

The retaining walls, on each side of the open approaches, vary 
in thickness at the base from 8f to 4 feet, and are everywhere on 
top 2 feet thick. Their faces are perpendicular and their backs 
are stepped up. The tops of these walls, and of the cross walls 
connecting them at the entrance to the covered approach, are 
covered with neat coping, which is surmounted by a strong 
iron railing. These walls are of neat coursed rubble masonry, 
laid in cement. The east open approach is 272 feet long, and 
the west 320 feet, the total length of masonry in the tunnel 
being 1,526 feet. 

The roadway has a grade of 1 in 16 between Franklin Street 
and the commencement of the double driveway; then 1 in 
42.86 to the centre of the river, the same between that and the 
commencement of the west covered approach, then 1 in IS. 63 to 
Clinton street, the entire length being 1,608 feet. This road- 
way, thus far, has always been paved with wooden blocks, except 
a small portion, recently, under the river, where the blocks have 
been worn out in the ruts very rapidly, never keeping in order 
over two years after being laid. 

The footway has a grade of 1 in 11.31 on the east side of the 
centre of the river to near the entrance house, where there is a 
level platform, then two flights of steps up to the surface on the 



518 History of the Rioer Tunnels of Chicago, 

east side of Market street. The grade west of the centre of the 
river is 1 in 12.08, with an entrance house and flights of steps 
on the east side of Canal street, similar to those at the other end 
on Market street.* 

The work was first let to contractors, whose inexperience led 
to a failure and re-letting. It was commenced the second time 
July 25, 1867, by Messrs". J. K. Lake, Chas. B. Farwell, and J. 
Clark. Mr. Clark afterwards withdrew, and was succeeded by 
Mr. A. A. McDonnell. A formal opening of the tunnel by the 
Hon. J. B. Rice, then Mayor, took place Jan. 1, 1869. The en- 
tire cost of the work to the city, including all preliminary ex- 
penses, up to Oct. 31, 1869, was $512,707.57. 

Notwithstanding the pains and expense taken to make this 
work tight, it leaked considerably at first under the river, and in 
very cold weather became so blocked with ice as to be dangerous 
unless frequently cleared out. That leakage has very much di- 
minished, and is not one-tenth as much now as at first. The 
leakage and frost affected the piers between the river arches so 
much as to make it necessary to renew portions of them about 
three years ago. 

Actual experience in the use of this tunnel by the public 
shows that the passage of heavily loaded teams through it is 
very small- This is not surprising when it is remembered that 
the total ascent from under the river to Franklin or Clinton street 
is 40 feet, while the total ascent, with no steeper grades, to either 
the Randolph or Madison street bridge, is only 8 feet. While it is 
possible for horses drawing heavy loads to pass over the short 
ascent by making strong efforts, it is impossible for them to 
overcome the long ones without frequent stops; hence they prefer 
to wait a few, and generally but a very few, minutes for a 
bridge to close. For the passage of light vehicles, this tunnel is 
considerably used, but not nearly so much as was originally ex- 
pected, except when repairs became necessary to the bridges, or 
stoppages of vessels occur. With regard to foot passengers, 
many use the tunnel, but compared with those who cross at the 
bridges, the number is very small. While navigation is closed 

* Th re is, from the centre of the river section and under the north driveway, 
a s.Ui or drainage tunnel 5 feet in diameter, leading to a pumping well on the 
east side of the river, where there is a steam engine and pump. 

The pier between the driveways under the river has eleven openings, 3 feet 
wide, for the passage of policemen and workmen. Similar passageways were 
made through the pier between the south driveway and the footway, supposing 
1 hey might sometimes be of great service to the police, in case of attempts at 
robbery or violence, which were apprehended by some, but these last mentioned 
pas ageways proved greater nuisances than benefits, and are practically closed. 
iu,bbery and violence, in the tunnel, occur no oftener, it is believed, than else- 
where. 



History of the Elver Tunnels of Chicago. 519 

in the winter, very little use is made of the tunnel, except by 
those who drive rapidly in light vehicles, and do not wish to be 
hindered by horse-cars at the bridges. The footway is sometimes 
preferred to the bridges in summer on account of its cool shade, 
and in winter because of its protection from freezing winds. The 
footway has to be lighted by day as well as by night. The 
driveways require much less artificial light by day than by night. 

LASALLE STREET RIVER TUNNEL. 

This structure is in most respects so similar to the one on 
Washington street, that only the differences will be mentioned. 
The total length from the beginning of the south open approach, 
a short distance north of Randolph street, to Michigan street, is 
1,854 feet; the south open approach is 320 feet long, the south 
covered approach 510 feet, the river section 276 feet, the north 
covered approach 530 feet, and the north open approach 218 feet. 
The footway is 2 feet higher than that of the Washington street 
tunnel, which is a decided improvement. It is east of the drive- 
ways and has been utilized for the laying of the 36-inch w^ater 
main, from the north pumping works, under the river. This 
main has been placed under the plank floor of the footway. This 
tunnel, as well as that on Washington street, has a great number 
of telegraph wires laid through it. The steepest grade in the 
driveways is 1 in 20, and. in the iootway 1 in 14-J-. In order to 
avoid a steeper grade than 1 in 20 on the north open approach, 
and yet not make this approach extend north of Michigan street, 
and at the same time not interfere with the grade of Kinzie 
street, it was nece-sary to construct under this street girder- 
work with flat brick arches. 

The greatest difference between this and the Washington street 
tunnel is in the much freer use of asphalt, the two upper shells 
or courses of brick in the arches under the river being laid in it 
instead of in cement, with a most satisfactory result. On the 
faces of the abutments, under the river, where no asphalt was 
used, there is considerable moisture, but no dripping. 

The entire original cost of this tunnel, including damages, 
was 8566,276.48. The city was sued for damages to property by 
the south open approach, but the courts decided the city was not 
liable.* 

*The contractors were Messrs. Robert E. Moss, George Chambers and Archi- 
bald I. McBean. 

Mr. Wm. Bryson, assistant of the City Engineer, had the immediate charge 
of this and the Washington Street river tunnel, and afterwards of the new lake 
tunnel and its extension westward. 



520 History of Bush Medical College. 



HISTORY OF RUSH MEDICAL COLLEGE. 

Prominent among the early medical men of Chicago stands 
the name of Dr. Daniel Brain ard. Closely associated with his 
name is that of the institution of which he was the founder — 
Rush Medical College. As early as the year 1836 he had con- 
ceived the idea of establishing in Chicago a medical college. 
He called to his assistance the late Dr. G. C. Goodhue, of Rock- 
ford, 111., then a resident of Chicago. They succeeded in 
securing the passage of an Act of Incorporation by the Legis- 
lature at Yandalia, in 1836, which was approved by the Gov- 
ernor the 2nd of March, 1S3T. This was the first instrument of 
the kiud issued to any educational institution in the State of 
Illinois, and Rush College was the first medical college es- 
tablished in the northwest. 

Although the charter was obtained in 1837, on account of the 
years of speculation and bankruptcy following, no lectures were 
given until the year 1843. Two small rooms having been fitted 
up on Clark street, on December 4, 1843, a course of lectures 
was commenced by the faculty which had been organized that 
fall, consisting of four Professors — Drs. Brainard, Blaney, Mc- 
Lean and Knapp. The session continued sixteen weeks, and was 
attended by twenty-two students. At its close, William But- 
terfield, afterwards a resident of Chicago, received the only de- 
gree which was conferred. 

During the summer of 1844 several liberal citizens of the 
North Side donated a lot, upon which was erected a building 
costing $3,500, which served a^ the house of the college until 
1855, when the building was entirely remodeled and enlarged, at 
a cost of $15,000, so as to accommodate 250 students. At the 
same time that they had secured their new building in 1844 
they also had made additions to the faculty, which were as fol- 
lows: Daniel Brainard, M. D., Professor of Surgery; Austin 
Flint, M. D., Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medi- 
cine; G. ~N. Fitch, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases 
of "Women and Children; J. Y. Z. Blaney, M. D., Professor of 
Chemistry and Pharmacy; Jno. McLean, M. D., Professor of 
Materia Meclica and Therapeutics; and W. B. Herrick, M. D., 
Professor of Anatomy. Of this faculty none are now identified 
with the college work. Drs. Brainard, Herrick, Blaney and Mc- 
Lean are deceased. Dr. Austin Flint is well known as an author 
and being connected with the Bellevue Hospital Medical College 



History of Rush Medical College. 521 

of Xew York City. Dr. Fitch was afterwards U. S. Senator from 
Indiana. Dr. John Evans, who filled the chair of Professor of 
Obstetrics, left vacant by Dr. Fitch, was afterwards Governor of 
Colorado and is still a prominent citizen of that State. 

As the years rolled by, they brought their changes, bnt with 
their changes were evidences of prosperity. As stated before, it 
was necessary to rebuild in order to accommodate the demands 
for more room and better facilities for teaching. The faculty had 
been enlarged. But in 1859 the question as to the advisability 
of establishing a graded course was raised. It had its advocates 
and opposers who zealously defended their views on the subject 
of medical education. The result was, several members of the 
then faculty seceded from the college, and. organized what is now 
known as the Chicago Medical College. To fill the vacancies 
thus occurring, J. Adams Allen was elected to the chair of Prin- 
ciples and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine; DeLaskie 
Miller to the chair of Obstetrics and Diseases of "Women; Eph- 
raim Ingals, Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; 
Kobert L. Pea, Professor of Anatomy, and A. S. Fludson, Profes- 
sor of Physiology and Pathology, which chair was soon after- 
wards filled by Dr. J. W. Freer, in consequence of the resigna- 
tion of Dr. Hudson. 

Soon after the opening of the session of 1866-7, the Asiatic 
Cholera claimed as its victim Dr. Brainard, the founder of Push. 
This saddening event caused several changes : Dr. J. V. Z. 
Blaney became President ; Dr. Moses Gunn, an eminent Pro- 
fessor of Surgery and Clinical Surgery in the University of 
Michigan, was called to fill that vacant chair in Push. Dr. Ed- 
win Powell was appointed Professor of Military Surgery and 
Surgical Anatomy. Soon after, two new chairs were created, 
those of Clinical Medicine and Diseases of the Chest, filled by 
the appointment of Jos. P. Poss, A. M., M. D., and Diseases of 
the Eye and Ear, to which E. L. Holmes, A. M., M. D., an emi- 
nent Oculist of this city, was appointed. 

In 1867 the continued and increasing prosperity of the college 
necessitated the erection of a new r building on the vacant lot of 
the college. The new building was erected, containing two 
lecture rooms, each with a seating capacity of over seven hundred, 
spacious laboratory, chemical rooms, etc., constituting it, prob- 
ably, the best arranged, if not the largest institution of the kind 
in this country. The old building was remodeled and used as 
an annex. The improvements cost $70,000, and with the ap- 
paratus, museum, (which had by this time become quite exten- 
sive,) library, cabinets, furniture and fixtures, could be scarcely 
estimated in money. But it all disappeared in a single night 
October 9, 1871, the time of the great fire. 



522 History of Bush Medical College. 

In 1871, Drs. H. M. Lyman and Jas. H. Etheridge were as- 
signed respectively to the chairs of Chemistry and Pharmacy, 
Materia Medica and Medical Jurisprudence, made vacant by 
the resignation of Drs. Blainey and Ingals. 

In 1872, the Spring course faculty was organized by com- 
petition examinations, or concours, which plan has succeeded 
admirably in filling the respective chairs with gentlemen of 
recognized skill and ability. The Spring course has become 
one of the most efficient means of teaching and is a feature 
which is attracting considerable attention and patronage, at 
the present writing there being 211 students attending the 
Spring lectures. 

Immediately after the great fire, lectures were continued in 
the amphitheatre of the old County Hospital. At the close of 
the session in 1871, seventy-seven were graduated. A temporary 
structure was erected on the hospital grounds, afterwards known 
as the "Eighteenth Street Tabernacle," and here the instruction 
was given until the session of 1876-77. In 1875, the present col- 
lege building, on the corner of Harrison and Wood streets, was 
commenced. The work was rapidly pushed forward, and on the 
4th of October, 1876, the opening lecture of the 31th annual ses- 
sion was delivered in the new edifice. 

This building stands nearly opposite the new Cook County Hos- 
pital and is second to no Medical College building in the country for 
massiveness, convenience and beauty of design. There are two 
lecture rooms with a seating capacity of over five hundred each. 
The chemical, anatomical and physiological laboratories are com- 
plete in all their details. At the time of the completion of this 
building, the faculty, as it stood, w T as the result of various 
changes. A vacancy occurred in the chair of Anatomy in the 
autumn of 1875, which was filled by the appointment of Chas. 
T. Parkes, M. D., an eminent anatomist. Prof. H. M. Lyman 
was assigned the chair of Diseases of the Brain and J^ervous Sys- 
tem, with Physiology. This left the chair of Chemistry and 
Pharmacy vacant. It was given to Walter S. Haines, M. D., 
who had attained the highest degree of success as a teacher in 
this department in a neighboring institution. Win. H. Ityford, 
A. M., M. D., who had once been a member of the Push faculty, 
but for several years had lectured in a rival institution, in 1879 
was tendered the chair of Professor of Gynaecology, which he ac- 
cepted. Dr. Byford has attained a world-wide reputation. He 
is well known as an author, having the honor of being the first 
writer of modern times on the subjects pertinent to his depart- 
ment. The chairs of Orthopaedic Surgery, and Dermatology 
and Yenereal Diseases have, also, been established, John E. 



History of Rush Medical College. 523 

Owens, M. D., being appointed to the former, J. Kevins Hyde, 
A. M., M. D,, to the latter. The faculty is now as follows: J. 
Adams Allen, M. D., LL. D., President, Professor of the Prin- 
ciples and Practice of Medicine; DeLaskie Miller, Ph. D., M. D., 
Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Children ; Moses Gunn, 
M. D., LL. D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Sur- 
gery and Clinical Surgery; Joseph P. Eoss, A. M., M. D., Pro- 
fessor of Clinical Medicine and Diseases of the Chest; "W. H. By- 
ford, A. M., M. D., Professor of Gynaecology; Edward L. Holmes, 
A. M., M. D., Professor of Diseases of the Eye and Ear; Henry 
M. Lyman, A. M., M. D., Professor of Physiology and of Dis- 
eases of the Nervous System; James H. Etheridge, A. M., M. D., 
Secretary, Professor of Materia Meclica and of Medical Jurispru- 
dence; Charles T. Parkes, M. D., Professor of Anatomy; Walter 
S. Haines, M. D„ Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology; J. 
Kevins Hyde, A. M., M. D., Professor of Skin and Venereal Dis- 
eases; John E. Owens, M. D., Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery. 
The old saw, " tall oaks from little acorns grow," is well exem- 
plified in the history of Rush College. From her humble begin- 
ning she has grown to be one of the foremost medical schools in 
the country. The session of 1880— SI will be the thirty-eighth an- 
nual session, up to which time there have been about thirteen thou- 
sand matriculates, and the alumni list contains the names of 
two thousand one hundred 1 and thirty-six medical men, who rank 
high in the profession, many having become eminent. During 
the session of 1877-8 there were in attendance 383 students and 
a class of 101 graduates; in 1878-9 there were 364 students and 
122 graduates; in 1879-80, 471 students and 144 graduates. The 
clinical advantages are surpassed by few colleges in this or any 
other country. The new Cook County Hospital is nearly oppo- 
site the college building. It was erected at a cost of nearly half 
a million of dollars, and is one of the most perfectly arranged 
hospitals in the country. Over 2,000 patients are treated here 
yearly. A large number of important surgical operations are 
here performed, while in the rear of the hospital is the Mortu- 
ary, where the post-mortem examinations are held, affording a 
good field forpathological study. The Central Free Dispensary is 
located in the college building and affords abundant material for 
clinical study. Nearly ten thousand patients are treated here 
yearly. Besides these there are other clinical advantages which 
afford excellent opportunities for general, or special, study, but 
we have not space to speak of them all. Joseph P. Eoss. 



524: The Chicago Homoeopathic Society. 



THE CHICAGO HOMOEOPATHIC COLLEGE. 

BY J. S. MITCHELL, M. D. 

When a movement to raise the grade of medical education in 
the United States was successfully inaugurated by eastern col- 
leges, there was a strong feeling that the West should not be 
behind in this much needed reform. The Eastern homoeopathic 
colleges occupied a proud position as leaders in this matter. 

Certain Chicago physicians of our school were strongly of 
the opinion that in this city a college could be maintained which 
would aiford to students a higher medical education. At this 
juncture, ten members of the faculty of the Hahnemann Medical 
College of Chicago, firmly persuaded that while connected with 
that college their views could not be carried out, resigned their 
positions on its faculty. After a thorough canvass of the subject, 
these gentlemen decided to found a new institution. They were 
J. S. Mitchell, M. D.; Charles Adams, M. D.; E. M. Hale, 
M. D.; W. Danforth, M. D.; E. H. Pratt, M. D.; L. Pratt, M. 
D.; J. E. Kippax,M. D.; Kodney Welsh, M.D.; Albert Beebe, 
M. D.; W. H. Woodvatt, M. D., who were joined by Professors 
George E. Shipman, A. M., M. IX; H. P. Gatchell, A. M., M. D.; 
E. K Foster, A. M., M. D.; S. P. Hedges, A. M., M. D., ex-prof- 
essors in Hahnemann Medical College; also bv E. E. Tooker, M. 
D.; John W. Streeter, M. D.; and A. W. Woodward, M. D. 

These gentlemen elected as a Board of Counsellors: — Amos 
T. Hall, Esq.; J. D. Harvey, Esq.; Judge Henry Booth, 
L.L. D.; O. W.Potter, Esq.; Henry Strong, Esq.; Hon. W. C. 
Good} 7 ; Edson Keith, Esq.; Hon. J. Eussell Jones; Et. Eev. 
Samuel Fallows, D. D. ; Marvin Hughitt, Esq.; C. C. Bonney, 
L.L. D. ; Hon. S. Corning Judd. 

A series of preliminary meetings were held at the office of Drs. 
Woodyat and Beebe, 90 Washington street, which resulted in 
sending to Springfield an application for organization under an 
act of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, relating to 
universities, colleges, academies, and other institutions of learn- 
ing. 

The Chicago Homoeopathic College was chartered June 23. 
IS 76, as a result of this application. 

The trustees selected for the first year of its existence were : 
Rodney Welch, A.M., M. D., J. S. Mitchell, M. D., A. G. Beebe, M. 
D., W. H. Woodvatt, M. D., Willis Danforth, M. D., E. N. 



The Chicago Homceojpathie College. 525 

Foster, M. D., S. P. Hedges, M.D., R K Tooker, M. D., E. H. 
Pratt, M. D., Charles Adams, M. D., E. M. Hale, M. D., J. R. 
Kippax, M. D. They were given power to furnish instruction 
in the science and art of medicine, surgery, and all collateral 
branches, and to found hospitals and dispensaries. After being 
thus incorporated, the college was organized by the selection of 
the following faculty, who were medical teachers of ripe experi- 
ence, most of them having occupied, as above stated, for years, 
similar positions in the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago. 
The active members of the faculty were: J. S. Mitchell, A. M., M. 
D., Professor of Clinical Medicine and Diseases of the Throat and 
Chest; S. P. Hedges, M. IX, Professor of Institutes and Practice 
of Medicine; Albert G. Beebe, A.»M., M. D., Charles Adams, 
M. D., Professors of Principles and Practice of Surgery and 
Clinical Surgery; Willis Danforth, M. D., Professor of Gyne- 
cological Surgery; John W. Streeter, M. D., Professor of Dis- 
eases oi Women and Children; P. K. Foster, A. M., M. D., Pro- 
fessor of Obstetrics; W. H. Woodyatt, M. D., Professor of 
Ophthalmology and Otology; E. M.'llale, M. D., A. W. Wood- 
ward, M. D., Professors of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; E. 
H. Pratt, A. M., M. D., Professor of Anatomy: John E. Kippax, 
LL. B., M. D., Professor of Dermatology and Medical Juris- 
prudence; P. K. Tooker, M. D., Professor of Physiology ; Pomyn 
Hitchcock, Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology; N. B. Dela- 
mater, M. D., Special Lecturer on Electro-Therapeutics and 
Provings. 

George E. Shipman, A. M., M. D., an author and lecturer of 
wide repute, was made Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica; 
H. P. Gatchell, A.M., M. D., well known throughout the United 
States for his scientific labors, was made Emeritus Professor of 
Physiology and Hygiene; Rodney Welch, A. M., M. D., long a 
Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology, was made Emeritus Pro- 
fessor of these branches; and Leonard Pratt, M. D., an experi- 
enced lecturer on Special Pathology and Diagnosis, was made 
Emeritus Professor in that department. 

The officers elected the first year were as follows: — President, 
J. S. Mitchell, A. M., M. D. ; Secretary and Treasurer, Charles 
Adams, M. D. ; Business Manager, Albert G. Beebe, A. M., M. D. 

A commodious and centrally located building, formerly occu- 
pied by the Chicago Academy of Design, was secured for a long 
term of years. 

The first session opened October 4, 1876, and terminated 
March 7, 1877. The introductory address was delivered by Pres. 
J. S. Mitchell. The main lecture room of the college was 
adorned with paintings and floral decorations, and presented an 



526 The Chicago 'Homoeopathic College, 

attractive appearance. It was crowded witli a brilliant audience. 
Forty-five students matriculated. 

Realizing the paramount value of clinical instruction, the 
faculty organized, simultaneously with the college, the Central 
Homoeopathic Free Dispensary. It was conducted with such 
spirit that by the opening of the first session it afforded the 
largest general clinics in the west, in our school. 

By division into sub-classes, by lengthening the course of in- 
struction, by special methods of quizzing and recitation — in fine, 
by substituting for the old plan of simply lecturing before the 
students, a systematic method of teaching, the aim of its faculty 
to establish a higher grade of education was met. 

At the close of the first session, sixteen candidates received the 
degree of Dr. of Medicine and Surgery. 

The second session opened under still more favorable auspices, 
there being 107 matriculants and 28 graduates. Prof. Hitchcock, 
having accepted the editorship of a scientific journal in the East, 
resigned his position, which was filled by Dr. A. L. Marcy of 
Evanston, 111. Dr. L. C. Grosvenor was elected Adjunct Profes- 
sor of Theory and Practice. 

The marked success of the second session induced the faculty 
in the third annual announcement to offer a scheme for an actual 
practical two and three years graded course. The students were 
divided into junior, middle and senior classes. Classes were di- 
vided into sub-classes for clinical instruction. There were this 
year 31 graduates and 111 matriculants. 

During the third year, Dr. Clifford Mitchell, a graduate of 
Harvard University, was made lecturer upon Chemistry, and 
Mrs. Julia Holmes Smith, M. D., one of the first graduates of 
the institution, was elected lecturer upon the Diseases of Women 
and Children, thus removing all sex disability in teaching, as 
had before been done in attendance. Dr. ]ST. B. Delamater was 
appointed clinical lecturer on Mental and Nervous Diseases and 
Dr. F. H. Newman lecturer on Pharmacology. 

In the fourth year, a microscopical laboratory was founded with 
twelve first-class instruments and appurtenances. The college 
building was enlarged, remodeled and refitted to accommodate 
the growing classes and to furnish better facilities for instruc- 
tion. A large, well lighted and ventilated dissecting room was 
built, which furnished ample opportunity for the study of Prac- 
tical Anatomy. 

Death has only once invaded the ranks of the faculty. W. H. 
"Woodyatt, Professor of Ophthalmology and Otology, died Janu- 
ary 31, 1880, during the regular session of the college. 
. He was one of the founders of the college, find a very earnest, 



The Chicago Homoeopathic College. 527 

scientific worker. His loss was keenly felt by his co-laborers. 
The trustees were very fortunate in securing, to fill the vacant 
position, Dr. J. H. Buffum, late resident aural and ophthalmic 
surgeon of the New York Ophthalmic Hospital, who now occu- 
pies the position with marked ability. 

The college is now entering upon the fifth year of its exist- 
ence under most favorable auspices. The ability of its 
faculty, its high aims in matters of medical education, and its 
signal success conspire to place in honored rank among the 
educational institutions of Illinois, the Chicago Homoeopathic 
College. The faculty and officers for 1880 are as follows: 

Officers of the College: — President, J. S. Mitchell, A. M , 
M. D.; Secretary, Charles Adams, M. D.; Treasurer, J. TL 
Buffum, M. D.; Business Manager, N. B. Delamater, M. D. 

Faculty and Trustees: — George E. Shipman, A. M., M. D., 
Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica; H. P. Gatchell, A. M., 
M. D., Emeritus Professor of Physiology and Hygiene; Leon- 
ard Pratt, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Special Pathology and 
Diagnosis; J. S. Mitchell, A. M., M. D., Professor of Institutes 
and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine; Albert G-. 
Beebe, A. M., M. D., Charles Adams, M. D., Professors of 
Principles and Practice of Surgery and Clinical Surgery; Willis 
Danforth, M. D., Professor of Gynaecological Surgery; John W. 
Streeter, M. D., Clinical Professor of Diseases of Women; E. 
X. Foster, A. M., M. D., Professor of Obstetrics; J. H. 
Buffum, M. D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Otology; E. M. 
Hale, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; A.W. 
Woodward, M. D., Professor of Analytical and Comparative 
Materia Medica; E. H. Pratt, A. M., M. D., Professor of Ana- 
tomy; John R. Kippax, L. L. B., M. D., Professor of Principles 
and Practice of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence; R. 1ST. 
Tooker, M.03., Professor of Phvsiolooy and Diseases of Children; 
Clifford Mitchell, A. B., M. D., Professor of Chemistry and 
Toxicology; ]ST. B. Delamater, M. D., Clinical Lecturer on 
Mental and Nervous Diseases; Julia Holmes Smith, M. D., 
Lecturer on Diseases ot Women; 0. F. Bassett, M. D., Adjunct 
Professor of Physiology; F. H. Newman, M. D., Lecturer on 
Pharmacology; C. G. Fuller, Demonstrator of Histology and 
Microscopy. 



528 Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital. 



HAHNEMANN MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL, OF CHICAGO. 

BY A. E. SMALL, M. D. 

This institution was chartered in January, 1855, by an act of 
incorporation from the legislature of Illinois, with ten Trustees, 
viz: D. S. Smith, M. D., George E. Shipman, M. D., Hon. Nor- 
man B. Judd, J. H. Dunham, Esq., Hon. Thomas Hoyne, Hon. 
Tan H. Higgins, J. B. Doggett, Esq., Orrington Lunt, Esq., 
and George A. Gibbs, Esq. Dr. D. S. Smith was instrumental 
in securing the act of incorporation and the first to start the en- 
terprise. 

Early in the summer of 1859, a meeting was called of the phy- 
sicians of the Homoeopathic School in Chicago, to consider the 
propriety of organizing, the college for active operation, by the 
appointment of a faculty and sueh other officers as were desig- 
nated in the charter. 

The following gentlemen were nominated for professors, and 
their names were submitted to the Board of Trustees for their 
approval : 

For President of the Faculty, and ex-officio President of the 
Board of Trustees, D. S. Smith, M. D. ; for Secretary and Treas- 
urer, George E. Shipman, M. D.; A. E. Small, M. D., Professor 
of Theory and Practice of Medicine; George E. Shipman, M. 
D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics; H. K. W. 
Boardman, M. D., Professor of Surgery; J. L. Kellogg, M. D., 
Professor of Obstetrics; Peuben Ludlam, M. D., Professor of 
Physiology and Pathology; !N". F. Cook, M. D., Professor of 
Chemistry and Toxicology; G. D. Beebe, M. D., Professor of 
Anatomy. 

Upon receiving notice of their appointment by the trustees, 
the members of the faculty met and organized by choosing A. 
E. Small, M. D., Dean, and Keuben Ludlam, M. D., Registrar. 
[t was voted at this meeting to issue the first annual announce- 
ment for a fall and winter course of lectures, to be given in suit- 
able lecture rooms, 168 South Clark street, and that a dispensary 
connected with- the college be opened immediately for dispensing 
medicine gratuitously to the poor. The first course embraced a 
period of twenty weeks; the class numbered twenty-five, eleven 
of whom, who had attended lectures previously in other institu- 
tions, received the doctorate at a public commencement, held 
Feb. 14, 18G0. 



Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital. 529 

The second annual announcement was issued for the second 
course of instruction which, was given to thirty-five students, 
eleven of whom w T ere candidates for the docjtorate, having com- 
plied with the necessary conditions and requirements. There 
was an increase in the third annual term of six students, the class 
numbered forty matriculants, but owing to the disturbed condi- 
tion of the country, and the demand for medical men from the 
faculty, the fourth annual course was given to thirty students; 
six of these received the doctorate. From this time, each annual 
course of lectures was attended by a gradual increase of numbers 
in the class, until 1869, when the faculty was reorganized. A 
new college edifice was erected on Cottage Grove avenue in 1870, 
and suitable hospital buildings w^ere erected the same year; since 
that time, with the exception of a thorough reorganization of the 
faculty in 1876, rendered necessary by the demand for a higher 
standard of medical education, there has been an uninterrupted 
peace and harmony in the faculty, and a prosperity before un- 
known. The class of 1868-69 numbered 197 matriculants; that 
of 1879-80, 205 matriculants. 

The present faculty consists of the following members: A. K. 
Small, M. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine; 
P. Ludlam, M. D., Professor of Medical and Surgical Diseases 
of Women, Obstetrics and Clinical Midwifery; Temple S. Hoyne, 
M. D., Professor of Materia Meclica and Therapeutics and Clini- 
cal Lectures on Venereal Skin Diseases; George A. Hall, M. D., 
Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery and Clinical 
Surgery; Harlan P. Cole, M. D., Professor of General and Sur- 
gical Anatomy and Minor Surgery; W. J. Hawkes, M, D., Pro- 
fessor of Physiology and Clinical Medicine; C. II. Yilas, M, D., 
Professor. of Diseases of the Eye and Ear; C. Gilbert Wheeler, 
M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology. With auxiliary 
corps of the following: S. Leavitt, M. D., Adjunct Professor of 
Obstetrics and Clinical Midwifery; H. B. Fellows, M. D., Pro- 
fessor of the Physiology and Pathology of the Nervous System; 
C. E. Lairing, M. D., Adjunct Professor of Physiology and 
Demonstrator of Anatomy; E. S. Bailey, M. D., Microscopist of 
the Hahnemann Hospital. The present officers of the faculty 
are A. E. Small, M. D., President; K Ludlam, M. D., Dean"; 
0. H. Yilas, M. D., Business Manager; T. S. Hoyne, M. D., 
Registrar and Treasurer. 

In conjunction with the college, and owned and controlled by 
the same corporation, though under separate management, is the 
Hahnemann Hospital, the only homoeopathic hospital in the North- 
west. It is a large stone and brick structure, with an amphithea- 
tre for utilizing the attending free patients for the clinical in- 



530 Chicago Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum. 

struction of medical students. Every day in the week, except 
Sunday, a free clinic for the treatment of the deserving poor is 
held, ail forms of non-contagious medical and surgical diseases 
being treated before the medical class. Private rooms are furnish- 
ed those who desire to enjoy the benefits of the hospital, but not 
gratuitously. 

A dispensary for out-patients is also in daily operation; and 
the number availing themselves of this charity large and constant- 
ly increasing. 



THE CHICAGO NURSERY AND HALF ORPHAN ASYLUM. 

BY MRS. W. C. GOUDY. 

In 1859, two or three benevolent ladies residing in the North 
Division of Chicago undertook to take care of the little children 
of destitute and widowed mothers, to enable them to earn some- 
thing by daily labor. A room was obtained and an attendant 
employed, while supplies were furnished from the homes of the 
ladies. This was the origin of the Nursery and Half Orphan 
Asylum. 

On the 15th of February, 1865, the legislature of Illinois 
passed a special act, by which a corporation was organized. The 
charter declares: 

"The object of this corporation shall be the care and mainten- 
ance of the children of poor women, for the purpose of enabling 
the mothers to find employment; also, the care and maintenance 
of such children as are deprived, by death or otherwise, of the 
protection or support of either parent; also, the care and main- 
tenance of such children as shall, by agreement of their parents 
or guardians, be placed in charge of this institution, together 
with the exclusive direction or education of all of the children 
aforesaid, whilst they shall remain in charge of this institution." 

Officers, managers and matrons were appointed. The enter- 
prise assumed larger proportions. From the temporary relief of 
the mothers during the day, a regular home was established. 
The management has relied entirely on voluntary' contributions 
obtained by personal effort. The plan has been successful. In 
time, a building with a large yard at the corner of Wisconsin 
and Franklin streets was rented, which was occupied until the 
little ones were driven out by the great fire of 1871. A benevo- 
lent gentlemen donated the ground, and others money, so that 
the present building, No. 1T5 Burling street, was erected. It was 



Chicago Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum. 

near completion at the time of the fire, and fortunately escaped 
destruction. 

Since that time, the family has averaged over one hundred. 
Many have received a good education in the day and Sabbath 
schools of the asylum. The parents have been relieved and en- 
abled to establish new homes for their children. The lady man- 
agers have secured places for many whose parents have abandoned 
them, or been unable to provide for them. 

The asylum has no endowment, and only a small suminve-v: . 
on interest. It still relies on the voluntary efforts of the man- 
agement, and the support of the charitable, with the hope thar 
God may move charitable hearts to provide a permanent fund to 
maintain the enterprise. 

BOAED OF :MA3"AG-ERS. 

Mrs. \V. C. Goudy, President: Mrs. H. L. High, Eecording 
Secretary: Mrs. 0. G. Carleton. Corresponding- Secretary; Mrs. 
E. S. Chesbrongh, Treasurer; Mrs. Samuel Howe. Vice-Presi- 
dent: Mrs. -J. P. Ohapin, Vice-President. 

Mrs. A. Keith. Mrs. C. W. Andrews. Mrs. C. H. Mnlliken, 
Mrs. G. M. Hiffh. Mrs. L. J". McCormick, Mrs. W. G. Powers. 
Mrs. L. P. Halsev. Mrs. H. J. Berrv, Mrs. J. S. Washbnrne, 
ALi-. M. 0. Dean, Mrs. A. M. Colton. firs. L. Hallock. Mrs. L. G. 
Fairbank. Mrs. J. T. Noyes, Mrs. J. D. Webster, Mrs. Prank Doug- 
las. Mrs. Odell. Mrs. Thayer. Mrs. Max Hjortsberg, Mrs. James 
wdwillie, Mrs. Henrv TT. Raymond, Mrs. Charles Gregory, 
Mrs. V. C. Turner. Mrs. M. A. Williams, Mrs. M. McDowell. 
Mrs. Dr. Tooker. Mrs. 0. B. Nelson, Mrs. L. Z. Leiter. Miss 
Nelly Warren, Miss Johnston, Mrs. S. B. Chase. Mrs. C. 0. 
Waters, Mrs. Felix. Mrs. Frank Beckwith. Mrs. Frank Eastman. 
Mrs. C. S. Millard. 

Mrs. M. J. Porter. Matron; Miss E. Blanche Freeman, Teacher. 

Horn; rary Managers. — Mrs. C. Tillinghast, Mrs. O. H. Hor- 
ton, Mrs. W. D. Hou^htel liner. Mrs. FT. Reynolds. 

LIST OF COiEMJTTEES. IS 79. 

Exe vat ttee. — Mrs. Howe. Mrs. Ohapin, Mrs. Carle- 

ton. Mrs. McCormick, Mrs. Mulliken. Mrs. Goudy. Mrs. Ches- 
F-. Mrs. II. High. Mrs. Leiter, Mrs. Nelson. 

Sujpph . . littee. — Mrs. Hjortsberg, Mrs. "Waters. Mrs. 
Beckwith. 

Purchasing and Saving Committee. — Mrs. Ohapin, Mrs. Mul- 
liken. Mrs. Howe. Mrs. Chase. 

Bedding Committee. — Mrs. Andrews. Mrs. Washburne, Mrs. 
Berry. Mrs. Hallock. 

Fad Committee. — Mrs. McCormick. Mrs. Howe. Mrs. Keith. 



532 Bennett Medical College. 

School Committee. — Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Leiter, Mrs. Gregory, 
Mrs. G. High, Mrs. Oolton. 

Auditing Committee. — Mrs. Keith, Mrs. Eastman, Mrs. Dean, 
Mrs. Powers. 

Repair Committee. — Mrs. Halsey, Mrs. McDowell, Mrs. 
Andrews. 

Amusement Committee. — Mrs. Tooker, Mrs. Carleton, Mrs. 
Hjortsberg, Mrs. Gregory, Mrs. Fairbank, Mrs. Beckwith, Miss 
Johnston, Mrs. G. High, Mrs. Raymond, Mrs. Goodwillie, Mrs. 
Eastman, Mrs. Douglass, Miss Warren. 

Comynittee on Delinquents. — Mrs. Hallock, Mrs. Chase. Mrs. 
Washburne. 

West Side Investigating Committee. — Mrs. Douglass, Mrs. 
Dean, Mrs. Powers. 

North Side Investigating Committee. — Mrs. Hjortsberg, Mrs. 
Col ton, Mrs. Felix. 

South Side Investigating Committee. — Mrs. Washburne, Mrs. 
Hallock. 

Sanitary Committee. — Mrs. Chase, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. 
Tooker, Mrs. McDowell. 

Nursery Committee. — Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Berry, Mrs. Andrews. 



BENNETT MEDICAL COLLEGE. 

BY A. L. CLARK, M. D. 

During the spring and summer of 1868, arrangements were 
perfected for the establishment of an Eclectic Medical College in 
the city of Chicago, in accordance with which the first course of 
lectures of The Bennett College of Eclectic Medicine and 
Surgery was inaugurated on the 2d day of November, 1868, 
rooms for that purpose having been secured in a building on the 
north side of Kinzie, between La Salle street and Fifth avenue. 

The names of the faculty were: Robert A. Gunn, M. D., Pro- 
fessor of Surgery; H. K. Whitford, M. D., Professor of Theory 
and Practice; H. D. Garrison, M. D., Professor of Chemistry; 
A. L. Clark, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and the Diseases of 
Women; John Forman, M. D., Professor of Anatomy; Hayes 
C. French, M. D., Professor of Physiology, and J. F. Cook, M. 
D., Professor of Materia Medica. 

Thirty students were enrolled and in attendance, of whom ten 
w^ere at the close of the session honored with the degree of Doc- 
tor of Medicine. During the winter of 1S68-69, the legislature 



Bennett Medical College. 533 

granted a charter to L. S. Major, W. D. Atchison, Ii. C. French, 
li. IX Garrison, Wm. M. Dale, II. K. Whitford, A. L. Brown, 
John Forman, M. II. Teegarden, R. A. G-unn, A. L. Clark and 
J. F. Cook, "and their successors, constituting them a body po- 
litic and corporate by the name of ' The Bennett College of Ec- 
lectic Medicine and Surgery.' " 

L. S. Major, M. D., was chosen president of the board of 
trustees, and more desirable rooms were obtained for the second 
course of lectures at No. 180 East Washington street, where the 
Winter course of 1871 had just been commenced when the great 
fire of that year laid the building and its contents in ruins. The 
lectures were interrupted but for one week,, and soon after the 
building known as ~No. 461 South Clark street was purchased by 
the corporation, and occupied until the close of the winter session 
of 1874-5. 

This building having been found too small for the increasing 
classes, it was decided in the fall of 1874 to sell it and purchase 
the lots upon which the present college edifice is located, at JN~os. 
511 and 513 State street. Work upon a building 40x70 feet, four 
stories with basement, was immediately commenced, and at its 
completion in the spring of 1875' the college at once took pos- 
session. Ample accommodations were thus afforded for 250 
students. 

In 1877, to facilitate the study of clinical medicine, it was de- 
cided to erect in the rear of the college a hospital building with 
facilities for the treatment of thirty to thirty-five patients. In 
this manner all the major and minor operations in surgery 
were made easily accessible to the students. 

With the exception of one or two sessions, female and male 
students have been admitted upon equal terms, and of the 349 
graduates, including the class of 1879, thirteen were ladies. In 
residence, the graduates represent twenty -five different states. 

The daily course of instruction consists of five didactic 
lectures of one hour each, besides one hour and a half devoted 
to clinical instruction. The lecture term commences on or about 
the first day of October, and continues six calendar months; the 
number of teachers or professors is fourteen. 



534: The Chicago Medical College. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHICAGO MEDICAL COLLEGE.— MED- 
ICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWESTERN UNI- 
VERSITY, CHICAGO, ILL. 

This institution, located at the corner of Prairie avenue and 
Twenty-sixth, street, in the city of Chicago, was organized in 
March, 1859, under the auspices of the trustees and charter of 
the Lind University of Chicago, and consequently took the name 
of the " Medical Department of the Lind University." It con- 
tinued to be known by this title until the spring of 1864, when 
by mutual agreement between the faculty of the medical depart- 
ment and the trustees of the University, the former became a 
separate institution, incorporated under the general incorporation 
law of the State, and adopted the name of " Chicago Medical 
College." In 1869 it was adopted by the trustees of the North- 
western University as the medical department of that institution, 
since which time its proper name has been the ''Chicago Medical 
College — Medical Department of the Northwestern University." 

The real founders of the College were: Drs. H. A. Johnson, 
N". S. Davis, W. H. Byford, E. Andrews, E. N. Isham, and Da- 
vid Rutter; the trustees of the Lind University giving to these 
parties full authority not only to name the members of the first 
Faculty, but also to adopt such a curriculum of studies, plan ot 
organization and method of teaching as they might deem best 
for the interests of the profession and of the public. It was the 
opportunity thus afforded to organize a medical college with a 
longer annual lecture term and a graded system of instruction, 
by which the education of the student should be made more sys- 
tematic and complete, that induced Drs. Davis and Byford to 
resign two of the best chairs in the Rush Medical College, for the 
purpose of aiding in the establishment of the new school. In 
accordance with these views, the school was first organized with 
thirteen professorships, including one of clinical medicine and of 
clinical surgery, the whole divided into two series: one called 
junior, embracing the more elementary branches, and the other 
called senior, embracing the more practical, with a corresponding 
division of the class of students in attendance. Applicants for 
admission were required to have a thorough knowledge of the 
common English branches of education; they were required to 
study medicine three years; attend at least two courses of lec- 
tures of not less than five months each, and at least one term of 
hospital clinical instruction. 



The Chicago Medical College. 535 

The first course of instruction* in the college was commenced 

in October, 1S59, to a class of thirty students, and from that 
time to the present the regular annual courses of instruction 
have been continued without interruption, and have been accom- 
panied by a steadily increasing patronage and influence. In 
1868 the faculty regarded the institution so securely established 
that, although standing entirely alone in this country in main- 
taining a graded system of medical instruction, they completed 
their original design by further dividing the curriculum of 
srudies into three series corresponding to the three years of med- 
ical study required. All students attending the college during 
the first year oi their medical study were required to attend the 
junior series, embracing Descriptive Anatomy, Physiology and 
Histologv. ^Materia Medica, General Chemistry, with dissections 
and practical work in the microscopic and chemical laboratories, 
and to be examined on these branches at the end of the college 
term. Those attending during the second year of their studies 
were required to give the same attention to the second or middle 
series, embracing General Pathology and Pathological Anatomy. 
Organic Chemistry and Toxicology, General Therapeutics, Surg- 
ical Anatomy, Orthopaedic Surgery, Psycological Medicine, Med- 
ical Jurisprudence and Hygiene, with hospifal attendance. 

Those attending the third year gave their attention to the sen- 
ior series, embracing the Principles and Practice of Mediciue, 
Principles and Practice of Surgery, Obstetrics and Diseases of 
Children, Gynecology. Ophthalmology and Otology.with Hospital 
Clinical Instruction in all the practical departments. The col- 
lege term made obligatory upon the student was extended to six 
months, with a supplementary optional term of three months in 
the spring and summer. Compliance with the graded system 
was made obligatory upon the student from the first organization 
of the school, and students making application for admission to 
advanced standing on account of having already completed one 
or two years of their medical studies, were required to sustain a 
satisfactory examination on the branches taught in the years they 
pruposed to pass by. The addition of the third course in the 
series caused a falling off in the aggregate attendance of students 
from 113 in 1S<3S. to 72 in 1870. This, however, was soon re- 
gained, and the school has since had a remarkably steady growth 
in its patronage, influence and general reputation. Its standard 
of preliminary education has been increased for admission ; its 
appliances for practical instruction in the Chemical. Physiologi- 
cal and Microscopic laboratories have been increased : it has one 
of the best museums of comparative anatomy and pathological 
preparations, and means for class instruction, that can be found 



536 The Woman's Medical College. 

in the country, while its close connection with the Mercy Hos- 
pital and the South Side Free Dispensary, afford it the most 
complete system of clinical instruction in all practical depart- 
ments. 

The present college building was erected in 1870, and is ad- 
mirably arranged for affording all the accommodations required 
by such an institution. Although standing alone as the repre- 
sentative of a systematic and graded course of medical instruc- 
tion in this country for more than a decade of years, yet its 
founders and their present colleagues have the gratification of 
knowing that its organization and system of instruction have 
been fully approved by the profession generally, and the same 
have been more recently adopted by several of the oldest and most 
influential medical colleges in this country. The present officers 
of the Faculty are : N.'S. Davis, M. D.,L. L. D., Dean, and J. 
II. Hollister, M. D., Corresponding Secretary and Registrar. 



HISTORY OF THE WOMANS' MEDICAL COLLEGE FROM ITS OR- 
GANIZATION TO 1880. 

BY PROF. EAKLE. 

In 1852, even before the Chicago Medical CoJlege was organ- 
ized, and ten years prior to the first coarse of lectures in this 
institution, Emily Blackwell attended one course of lectures at 
Rush Medical College. She was denied entrance to a second 
course, and finally graduated at a Cleveland institution. The 
reasons for the change I am unable to state, and a letter which I 
addressed her in regard to the subject has not been answered. 
This much, however, is known : The Illinois State Medical 
Society, saturated with the then prevailing prejudices against 
female medical education, censured the College for admitting 
women to its instruction. How different the spectacle of to-day. 
This society, among the most prominent and influential of the 
State societies, not only admits women to its membership, but 
assigns her positions on its most important standing committees. 
A few years later, two female practitioners, educated at the East, 
located in this city for a short time, but, so far as I am aware, 
no students received instruction or asked for it in their office. 

At about the same time, Dr. Mary II. Thompson came to prac- 
tice among us, and shortly afterward, mainly indebted to the 
generous assistance of Dr. Dyas and his public spirited wife, es- 
tablished a hospital for women and children. This soon became 



The Woman's Medical College. 537 

t!ie rendezvous for the women of the "West, who, being denied 
access to any regular college in their region, found in the clini- 
cal advantages of the hospital, their nearest approximation to 
an institution for medical instruction. Applications were con- 
tinually made by women for the advantages of an education in 
some regular medical school. Of the applicants, some went to 
the East for benefits they could not find here, while many others, 
discouraged on the threshold of the profession, abandoned its 
study. In 1866, and again in 1S6S, women formally knocked at 
the doors of Rush College. After considerable delay, and some 
discussion on the inside of the house, the knock was answered, 
and the callers politely informed that for them the college 
*' was not at home.' 7 The following year they rang the bell of the 
Chicago Medical College. Fortunately for them, Dr. By ford 
came to the door. He invited them to walk in and be seated. 
They remained through the session of 1869. They were four in 
n u ruber . O thers who would have com e w T i th th em, had they kn o wn 
of the kindly welcome given, had already gone to an Eastern 
college. But, although the relations of the gentlemen and ladies 
as students bad always been dignified and respectful, the male 
members of the class at the close of the college year sent to the 
Faculty a formal protest against the admission of their fair visit- 
ors, claiming that certain clinical material was not as ready in 
coming forward, and that certain facts and observations of value 
were omitted from the lectures in the presence of a mixed class. 
The experiment of the co-education of the sexes in all the 
branches of medical and surgical science being deemed of doubt- 
ful utility under these circumstances, the protest was sustained, 
and the ladies who had caused it to be made were left without 
the opportunity to finish the education so well begun. Immedi- 
ately a correspondence sprung up between Prof. By ford and Dr. 
Mary EL Thompson, in regard to the founding of a new college 
for the exclusive education of women. A Faculty composed 
largely of the physicians who had previously consented to act as 
consulting physicians to the hospital for women and children, was 
organized. A Board of Trustees, composed of ladies and gentle- 
men friendly to female education, embracing a large number of 
prominent citizens, especially among the clergy, were selected. 
The first regular course of lectures was delivered in the building 
occupied by the hospital referred to, at 402 North State street. 
The session was in every espect a greater success than even the 
most sanguine friends of the movement bad dared to hope. To 
provide suitable accommodations for a larger class at the com- 
mencement of the second term, rooms were fitted up at Nos. 1 
and 3 North Clark street, and every arrangement perfected for 



538 The Woman'' s Medical College. 

the comfort and convenience of students. .On the 3rd of Octo- 
ber, 1871, the session opened with the most nattering promises 
of success. In less than a week came the great Chicago lire ; 
the Woman's Hospital Medical College and all its material 
possessions, like the prophet of old, w T ent up in a chariot of fire. 
The class, was scattered and the Hospital, which had provided the 
means of clinical instruction, existed only in name. Of the 
Faculty, more than three-fourths of their number had lost their 
offices, their libraries, their instruments and their homes. The 
patrons of all had been scattered to the four quarters of the city, 
if not of the globe. But they had founded the school, not to 
obtain money, not to gain a higher position or more extensive 
practice for themselves, and not to win fame, but in the love of 
their profession and to establish a principle. Moreover, they 
were citizens of that city whoss undismayed energy and un- 
daunted courage in the face of obstacles and disasters, has fairly 
won and received the admiration of the world, and while the 
smoke still floated in clouds over the city, and the ashes were hot 
in the cellars, on the 10th day of October, these men formally 
convened and decided that the enterprise should go on. 

Notice of this decision was given to the scattered students, and 
the lectures were resumed at No. 341 West Adams street, but 
the Hospital had been re-established at 598 on the same street, 
and thither the college was soon moved. This session might in- 
deed be appropriately called the transition period of this institu- 
tion. Announced to commence at 402 North State Street, or- 
ganized at Nos. 2 and 3 North Clark, marched, without elabor- 
ate preparation and with baggage burned to facilitate transpor- 
tation, to 341 West Adams Street, it was finished at still another 
place. But the college had successfully survived each transplan- 
tation. Its life and growth were assured. Its roots had struck 
down deep until they had reached a nourishing soil. 

In the winter of 1872, in consideration of certain medical and 
^surgical services to be rendered from year to year, the Chicago 
Relief and Aid Society donated to the Hospital for Women and 
Children the sum of $25,000. With this money the Hospital, 
purchasing a large lot with a building well suited for the accom- 
modation of its patients, established itself on the corner of West 
Adams and Paulina streets. On the rear of this lot, and well 
below the grade of the street, was a small barn, the use of which 
was kindly and gratuitously granted to the Faculty of the Col- 
lege. Three thousand dollars, judiciously expended, converted 
the building from an indifferent stable into a comfortable and 
moderately convenient Woman's Medical College, though we 
should be unwilling to admit that the richness of that soil would' 



The Woman's Medical College. 539 

fully account for its present beautiful accomplishment. On the 
first floor we had a good-sized lecture room, a Faculty room, a 
library, and museum (three rooms in one), while the second floor 
afforded moderate accommodation for dissections. Here five full 
courses of lectures were delivered. While we do not deny that 
during these seven years of wanderings our accommodations 
have been scant and our means of illustration inadequate, we 
claim that our classes have been intelligent and uniformly com- 
posed of good material; and that of our graduates many have 
already become settled in an honorable and lucrative practice, 
and others, attaining positions of special honor in the profession, 
have won reputation for themselves and brought credit upon our 
institution by their success as teachers and authors, in the med- 
ical guild. 

The new College Building, erected three years since, is admir- 
ably adapted to the wants of the institution. It is commodious, 
well lighted, and well "Ventilated, and is supplied with every con- 
venience for teaching. It is two and one-half stories high, with 
a basement, containing two lecture rooms, capable of seating one 
hundred and fifty students; laboratory, museum, dissecting room, 
microscopical cabinet, parlor, etc., etc. 

During the session of 1879 and '80 seventy students were in 
attendance and a class of ten was graduated. 

THE PRESENT EACULTY. 

Wm. H. Byforcl, A. M., M. D., President, Professor of Ob- 
stetrics; T. Davis Fitch, M. D., Professor of Gynaecology; Chas. 
Warrington Earle, M. D., Treas., Professor of Di-eases of Chil- 
dren and Adjunct to Chair of Practice; Isaac IN". Danforth, M. 
D., Professor of Pathology and Diseases of the Kidneys; John 

E. Owens, M. D., Professor of Surgery; Henry M. Lyman, A. M., 
M. D.. Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine; Daniel 
R. Brower, M. D., Secretary, Professor of Mental and Nervous 
Diseases and Medical Jurisprudence; Sarah Hackett Stevenson, 
M. D., Corresponding Secretary, Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics; 
David W. Graham, A. M., M. D., Professor of Anatomy; Plym. 
S. Hayes, M. D., Professor of Chemistry anel Toxicology; Wm. J. 
Maynard, A.M., M. D., Professor of Materia Medica, Therapeu- 
tics and Dermatology; Wm. T. Montgomery, M. D., Professor 
of Ophthalmology and Otology; E. Fletcher Ingals, A. M., M. 
D., Clinical Professor of Diseases of the Chest and Throat; 

F. L. Wadsworth, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Histology; 
John O. Hobbs, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy; Marie J. 
Mergler, M. D., Lecturer on Materia Medica. 



54:0 Chicago Haroor. 



CHICAGO HARBOR. 

Chicago III., June 21, 1880. 

RuFTTS BlANOHAET). 

Wheaton, 111. 

Dear Sir: I take great pleasure in submitting, in accordance 
with jour request, the following statement of work done by the 
U. S. Government for improving the harbor at Chicago; it 
would be more accurate to say for making a harbor, as none ex- 
isted until the natural condition of affairs was modified. An 
idea of what this condition was may be derived from a glance at 
the plate fronting page 264, Part III of your book; there we see 
that the Chicago River, making an abrupt bend to the south, 
breaks through the sandspit some distance south of the site of 
the old fort. It must not be supposed that this was a perma- 
nent outlet, nor that it constituted a reliable channel of com- 
munication between the lake and river. It was simply a break 
through the sandspit, in which the depth of water seldom ex- 
ceeded two feet, and which was frequently entirely blockaded 
with sand. 

The act of Congress approved March 2nd, 1833, appropriated 
the sum of $25,000 for improving the "harbor at Chicago, on 
Lake Michigan;" and then was begun that series of works which 
has given to Chicago the fine harbor facilities indicated on the 
sketch transmitted herewith. 

The first step was to make a direct cut from the bend in the 
river, to the lake; a revetment was placed on the north, side of 
the cut, and the north pier was projected into the lake for a dis- 
tance of about 1,000 feet; the object of this pier was to catch and 
hold back the sand, which, moving south along the lake shore 
under the influence of the littoral current, would soon have 
closed the outlet, and left matters as bad as before. While the 
construction of the north pier was in progress, the cut was 
widened to 200 feet, and riveted on the south side. In this way 
a reliable entrance to the river was secured at an early date. It 
would be neither interesting nor instructive to follow, step by step, 
the progress of this system of improvement, and I will simply 
state that the work consisted in a gradual extension of the piers, 
and some necessary dredging between them, until the year I860, 
before any movement was made to obtain increased harbor facil- 
ities, beyond those furnished by the river. At this time the end 






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Chicago Harbor. 541 

of the north pier was 1,100 feet lakeward of the shore line of I860, 
— the shore line itself having advanced, by natural accretions 
due to the littoral current before referred to, through a distance 
of 2,000 feet; the area of these accretions was about 75 acres; the 
south pier was about 1,600 feet shorter than the north pier; the 
total extent of pier work and revetment made by the IT. S. from 
1833 to 1870 aggregated about 6,000 feet. 

In the meantime, the commerce of Chicago had increased to 
such proportions, as to show clearly that something must be 
done to relieve the river from its crowded condition. Accord- 
ingly we find that Major J. B. Wheeler, the U. S. Engineer in 
charge of the works, reported to the Chief of Engineers, in a 
letter dated Nov. 30, 1869, " that the Chicago river is taxed to 
its utmost, to accommodate the present condition of affairs, and 
that it is utterly inadequate to meet the wants of commerce rap- 
idly growing." To obtain the desired relief, he recommended 
that a portion of the lake be inclosed in such a manner as to 
form an outer harbor; to this end he proposed to construct a 
breakwater extending southerly, from the entrance between the 
piers, for a distance of 4,000 feet, and from the south end of this 
structure, a closing pier, 3,400 feet long to the shore at the foot 
ofYanBuren St.; the enclosed area was then to be dredged to a 
sufficient depth for vessels to lie at anchor. This plan having 
been approved, work was commenced on the main breakwater in 
1870, and completed in 1875. The depth of water in which it was 
built, varies from 20 to 22 feet ; it is built of cribs 30 feet wide 
solidly filled with stone ; its superstructure extends to 6 feet 
above the water surface. During the time that work on this 
structure was in progress, the south pier was extended 600 feet 
and a " return " 300 feet long, added to the north end of the break- 
water ; in 1876, the north pier was extended 600 feet Thus the 
total extent of crib-work for piers and breakwater, built from 
1870 to 1876 inclusive, was 5,500 lineal feet. 

There was no money available for doing much work in the 
year following, but when the appropriation for 1878 became avail- 
able, it was applied, in part, to dredging a channel 500 feet wide 
to a depth of 16^- feet, through the outer harbor, the amount of 
excavation being about 100,000 cubic yards. In November, 1878, 
Captain G. J. Lydecker, the U. S. engineer in charge, submitted 
a project for modifying and extending the facilities furnished 
by Wheeler's plan; the principal features of this modified plan, 
which was approved, were the substitution of a detached break- 
water for the southerly or closing pier, proposed by Major 
Wheeler, and the construction of an exterior breakwater, located 
to the northward and eastward of the north pier, to cover a good 



542 The Chicago Relief and Aid Society. 

anchorage ground in deep water, and provide in this way a harbor 
of refuge. . The construction of the southerly breakwater was 
commenced in June, 1879, and completed to its full extent, 3,000 
feet, early in the summer of 1880. 

The total expenditure by the XT. S. Government, for'this harbor, 
from 1833 to July, 1880, is $1,108,005. The work nas all been 
planned and executed under the direction of officers detailed from 
the Corps of Engineers II. b\ Army; it includes the construction 
of about 14,500 lineal feet of piers and breakwater, and an in- 
definite amount of dredging. The benefits derived therefrom 
may be summarized as follows: In 1833 there was no reliable 
channel connecting the lake and river, whereas now there is a 
straight entrance between the piers, with a channel depth of 15 
feet. The breakwaters already built shelter an area of 450 acres, 
which was formerly in the open lake, and will permit the con- 
struction of wharves along the lake front as far as 12th Street, 
which, supposing one at the foot of each street, would provide an 
aggregate length of dock line of at least 32,000 feet, and these 
docks will be in direct communication with the railway system 
of the city. 

When the work already authorized is completed, the outer 
harbor will have a uniform depth of 16-J feet, and the exterior 
breakwater will provide an excellent harbor of refuge, which 
vessels can reach with ease during the severest storms, and from 
which the outer harbor and river will be readily accessible. For 
carrving on this work, Congress has this vear appropriated the 
sum" of $145,000. 

In addition to the works described above for the improvement 
of the harbor, the Government has also built and maintain ed at 
Chicago one lighthouse, three beacons, and one life-saving station. 
Very respectfully, 

G. J. Lydecker, 
Major of Engineers U. S. A. 



THE CHICAGO RELIEF AND AID SOCIETY 

By E. B. McCagg. 

The Chicago Belief and Aid Society was incorporated Febru- 
ary 16, 185T, its objects, as declared m its charter, being to pro- 
vide a permanent, efficient and practical mode of administering 
and distributing the private charities of the city of Chicago; to 
examine and establish the necessary means for obtaining full and 



The Chicago Relief and Aid Society. 543 

reliable information of the condition and needs of the poor of 
the city; and to put into practical and efficient operation the best 
system of relieving and preventing want and pauperism therein. 
It is required by its charter to make a report once a year to the 
City Council of its doings, with a statement of its receipts and 
expenses, verified under oath, and also to report such information 
as it may have acquired concerning the condition and wants of 
the poor of the city. It is managed by a Board of Directors, 
selected from prominent business and professional men of 
the city, who give it personal attention, and attempt, in a 
philosophical manner, to so administer charity as not to injure, 
or to do the least injury possible, to the recipient and to society. 
Understanding well that pauperism is dangerous to touch and 
cannot be left alone, they are endeavoring to deal with it in a 
prudent, rational and discerning manner and to discourage all in- 
discriminate giving without investigation. 

It has been their effort, not to take the place of that kindly 
sympathy which leads us to help our suffering neighbor whose 
wants are assuredly known, nor the considerate and delicate solici- 
tude of religious or other benevolent fraternities for those imme- 
diately within their own jurisdiction and charge, but outside of 
these to aid the general public in this branch of its duties with 
system, and by an organization so complete that if the whole 
community would work through it, that portion of the charitable 
work of the city within its province would be done with method, 
and none duplicated. The Society is supported wholly by volun- 
tary contributions, and administers its charity in the way which 
in each case seems most advisable. 

It owns the building in which its offices and rooms are estab- 
lished, and has been in successful operation for over twenty 
years, 

The whole theory of its management is that charity is not a 
matter of feeling, but judgment; as was tersely stated by a writer 
in one of our magazines not long since, that "each case must be 
examined, put on trial, and disposed of on its merits; " that 
general information must be had, from time to time, of the num- 
ber of unemployed persons in the city, and of the demand for labor, 
and particular information of the character and antecedents of 
each applicant, and of the reasons why aid is needed; that a dis- 
crimination must be made between those who are helpless from 
misfortune and those whose misery arises from their own de- 
fault, and that to aid the willingly idle man or woman, or any 
one who can help himself, is in the highest degree hurtful to the 
person aided and to society at large. Its more immediate duty 
has been to extend aid to that class of worthy and industrious 



544 The Chicago Relief and Aid Society. 

poor who, by reason of sickness, accident, loss of employment 
or of property have fallen temporarily behind, and to rescue 
them, from the danger of permanent pauperism by timely assist- 
ance; to extend a helping hand to widows with dependent 
children, to aged and infirm people partly able to help themselves 
and to single women when work suddenly ceases, and above all, to 
so do its work that the public may at all times have at its door an 
efficient agent to distribute its charities, and, as far as may be, to 
prevent the injurious and wasteful results of indiscriminate 
giving. 

It employs paid and experienced visitors, under the immediate 
direction of a qualified and able superintendent; it makes careful 
inquiry into and keeps a record of each case, discriminating in 
favor of those in whom habits of temperance and industry give 
promise of benefit from the aid furnished, not embracing in the 
sphere of its operations such as are the proper subjects for the 
poor-house or the action of the county officers; and so accurate 
is this record, and so methodical the manner in which it is kept, 
that actual experience proves that, for some years past, out of 
every hundred applications the Superintendent has been able to 
give the antecedents of at least seventy-five of the applicants. 
It is a record of the meritorious poor of the city, anc} of a very 
large number of those whose applications should be denied. It 
has now on this record the names of over fifty thousand persons, 
and the special facts affecting each case. 

Its value as an organization was tested by the wide-spread des- 
titution and want caused by the great fire of 1871. Possessing 
the confidence of the public, the city authorities turned over to 
it, for management and distribution, the contributions of money 
and property so freely sent at that time to aid the suffering 
people of this city, and it speedily brought order, method and 
direct and perfect supervision to the enormous burthen thus 
thrown upon it. Economywas sought in every way. After the 
first few days, in which relief was necessarily indiscriminate, sys- 
tematic and reasonably assured efforts were made to defeat im- 
position ; to search out and aid needy sufferers ; to withhold en- 
couragement to idleness, and to guard against extravagant or in- 
judicious distribution. Beside the distribution of the articles 
of property that came under its control, it has disbursed of this 
fund over $5,000,000 in money and the magnitude of its opera- 
tions is evidenced by a summary of its work, or part of it, for 
the first eighteen months after the fire. In this period it aided 
39,212 families, numbering 156,968 persons, and it distributed 
during the same period 50,000 tons of coal, 16,449 bedsteads, 
28,961 mattresses, 77,645 blankets, 10,855 comfortables, 15,429 






THe Chicago Relief and Aid Society. 545 

stoves., 77,000 pairs of shoes, 137,994 pieces of men's clothing, 
165,000 pieces of women's clothing, and 107,000 pieces of chil- 
dren's clothing, and fuel, food and furniture in proportion. Car- 
penters, masons, tinners, book-binders, locksmiths, tailors, shoe- 
makers, and workmen in almost every branch of mechanical in- 
dustry were supplied with tools; machinery of various kinds was 
furnished; surgeons, dentists and engineers were provided with 
instruments of their respective callings; sewing women were 
aided in obtaining sewing machines, 2,353 of these being paid for 
in full, and 2,065 in part, by the society; 9,000 houses were built 
and furnished, and over $600,000 was distributed among the va- 
rious charitable institutions, that had been either burned or 
seriously crippled — the resources of their patrons having been 
cut off; and money was granted in various amounts to aid appli- 
cants in the re-establishment of such business or mechanical em- 
ployment as seemed to afford a sufficiently assured prospect of 
yielding a support to them and their families. Some waste was, 
in the beginning, inevitable. The task was immense — not only 
the aged, the sick, the infirm, children and women, but men, 
weary, hungry, houseless, cold and in despair, were suddenly 
thrown upon the hands of the Society. The city was speedily 
districted, registration was resorted to at the outset, a complete 
staff was organized, visitors were employed, inspectors were ap- 
pointed, relief stations were established, a full report was required 
daily from each district, and the several Superintendents met the 
Executive Committee daily to make or hear suggestions, to answer- 
criticisms, to report progress, and suggest improvements, if 
possible, in the working machinery. A general inspector made 
frequent examinations, and a committee of complaints was always 
ready to hear complaints, and, if well founded, to apply the remedy. 
The endeavor was to reduce to the smallest possible percentage 
injudicious or unnecessary relief, and to extend aid to all who 
were justly entitled to it. 

For the fiscal year of 1878 it expended $45,620, and aided a 
small fraction over 1,600 families, containing in the aggregate 
over 13,700 men, women and children. Of these families 
1,045, or about two-thirds, received aid only once: 310 twice; 
150 three times, so that but a few over one hundred were aided 
more than three times; and for the fiscal year of 1879 it expended 
$35,193.48, and aided a somewhat larger number of families, 
containing 18.584 persons. Of these families 1,003 received aid 
but once, 365 twice, and 160 three times. 

This, however, shows but a small part of its work. It cares 
for the sick, buries the dead, aids needy persons seeking employ- 
ment to obtain it, and carefully and fully investigates, in the course 



546 The Chicago Fire Department. 

of each, year, hundreds of applications for aid which it refuses, 
because examination proves them unworthy. 

It grew out of the belief on the part of a number of gentle- 
men of the city, who had given time, thought, and active aid 
to out door relief, through voluntary and only quasi definite or- 
ganizations, that the means adopted were inefficient and for many 
reasons unsatisfactory; and an experience of twenty and more years 
has fully justified the conclusion they reached that this kind of 
charity should be administered as a merchant does his business, 
with system, under proper checks and balances, and by keeping 
a record of each application for aid and of the facts developed by 
the examination made into the condition, character and circum- 
stance of the applicants. 



THE CHICAGO FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
prepared by the editor of "The Western Fireman. " 

The first authentic record of anv organization in Chicago for 
protection from fire is a notice, the original of which is still in 
existence from the secretary (J. J. Gillupv) of the " Washington 
Volunteer Fire Company " to one of its members for a called 
meeting, and dated Jan. 8, 1833. 

In August of that year Chicago was incorporated as a Town, and 
in November, Benj. Jones appointed "Fire Warden." In Sep- 
tember, 1831, an ordinance was adopted by the town board of trus- 
tees by which the town was divided into four wards, and fire war- 
dens for each appointed as follows: 1st Ward, Wm. Worthingtou ; 
2d Ward, Ed. E. Hunter; 3d Ward, Samuel Kesique; 4th Ward, 
James Kinzie. These wardens were charged with the duty of en- 
forcing the fire ordinance previously passed, and of directing in 
their respective wards the operations of the men who responded 
to the alarm of fire. On Oct. 7, 1835, an appropriation for the 
purchase of some primitive fire apparatus was made, at which 
time Hiram Hugunin, the president of the town board of trus- 
tees was elected chief of the embryotic fire department. On 
the same date (Oct. 7, 1835), the " Pioneer Hook & Ladder Co." 
was organized by the principal citizens. 

On the 4th of November following, the town board adopted 
a lengthy ordinance creating a fire department, with chief en- 
gineer, two assistants, four fire wardens (in addition to the town 
trustees, who were ex officio fire wardens) and " such fire engine 
men, hose men, hook and ladder men, and axe and saw men as 
may from time to time be appointed by the board of trustees." 
Stringent rules governing the companies which were organized, 



The Chicago Fire Department. 547 

or might organize, were adopted, and the refusal of any citizen 
to obey the orders of the chief or his assistants or any of the 
fire wardens in case of fire was punishable with a fine of five 
dollars. 

On Dec. 12, 1835, the first engine company, called "The Fire 
King," was organized. The first officers were S. G. Trowbridge, 
foreman; Alviu Calhoun, assistant foreman; A. D. Hamilton, 
secretary; H. Gr. Loomis, treasurer, and Ira Kimberly, steward. 
About this time Chicago's first fire engine was purchased, $394.- 
38 having previously been appropriated for the purpose, payable 
in two annual installments. Soon after an engine house was 
built, located in the public square on LaSalle street. In Feb. 
1836, Hiram Hugunin who had acted as chief engineer for about 
six months, resigned, and Ceo. W. Snow was appointed to the 
position, which he held for one year, and was succeeded by John 
M. Turner, foreman of Hook and Ladder Co., ~No. 1. On the 
11th of December, 1837, -the second engine company was organ- 
ized as the "Tradesman's," but soon afterwards changed to " Met- 
amora," "No. 2. For convenience, we append, in tabular form, the 
record of the organization of the various companies composing 
the fire department until the present paid system displaced the 
old volunteer organization: 

ENGINE COMPANIES. 

Name. ^ When Organized, i First Foreman. 

Fire King Dec. 12, 1835 S. G. Trowbridge. 

Metamora Dee. 11, 1837 

Niagara Nov., 1844 Geo. F. Foster. 

Eed Jacket Nov., 1846 F. T. Sherman. 

Excelsior " " A.S.Sherman. 

Garden City Aug., 1849 Chas. Morton. 

Lawrence. Sept., 1850 Matthew Conley. 

Waubansia Dec, 1851 Frank Hathaway. 

New England Feb., 1854 W. B. Bateham. 

Washington Jan., 1855 John Shanks. 

Wide Awake Jan., 1856 Geo. Ross. 

Neptune Feb., 1856 H. Beebe. 

Red Rover Jan., 1857 T. E. Courtney. 

Torrent March, 1857 John M. Lam bin. 

Northern Liberty Dec, 1858 Conrad Folz. 

HOSE COMPANIES. 

Philadelphia Jan., 1845 J. B. Johnson. 

Hope Oct., 1850 S. 0. Eames. 

Lone Star Dec, 1851 L. Meyer. 

La Fayette Sept., 1855 M. W. Powell. 

Liberty Dec, 1856 Jno. B. Dickey. 

Lady Washington Jan., 1857 John R. Clark. 

HOOK AND LADDER COMPANIES. 

Pioneer Oct. 7, 1835 

Rescue Nov.. 1855 L. Warwick. 

Empire March, 1857. . , A. Reary, 



54:8 The Chicago Fire Department. 

The following is a correct list of the various chiefs of the vol- 
unteer fire department, together with their terms of service: 
Hiram Plugunin, 1835, six months; Geo. W. Snow, 1836, one 
year; Jno. M. Turner, 1837, one year; Alexander Lloyd, 183S, 
one year; Calvin Calhoun, 1839, one year; Luther Nichols, 1840, 
one year; A. S. Sherman, 1841-2, two years; Stephen F. Gale, 
1843-6, three years; C. E. Peck, 1847-8, two years; Ashley 
Gilbert, 1849, one year; C. P. Bradley, 1850-1, two years; IT. 
P. Harris, 1852-3, two years; Jas. M. Donnelly, 1854, one year; 
Silas McBride, 1855-6, two years; Dennis J. Swenie, 1858-9, 
two years. 

Yery soon after the great "Water and Lake street fires in October, 
1857, the question of having steam fire engines and a paid de- 
partment began to be agitated, and in February, 1858, the first 
steamer was purchased and named " The Long John." In De- 
cember of the same year a full company was commissioned by 
the city authorities, to be regularly, paid for their services. 
Gradually additions were made under the paid system, several 
of the old companies reorganizing under the new order of things, 
but not until the latter part of 1859 were the last of the volunteer 
organizations disbanded, and the change made complete. 

Various improvements were introduced into the department, 
new companies organized and equipped, the Fire Alarm Telegraph 
introduced (in 1865), and the department rendered very efficient 
under the successive management of Chief Engineers D. J. 
Swenie, U. P. Harris and Eobert A. Williams, down to 1870-1, 
at which time the department consisted of seventeen engine 
companies of nine men each, three hook-and-ladder companies, 
six hose companies and one hose elevator, the available working 
force being upwards of 200 men. Of the great fire of 1871, we 
need not speak here, as it is treated elsewhere in these pages. 
Among the results of the fire, however, as affecting the Fire 
department, were a more careful organization and stricter dis- 
cipline of .the force, an increased water supply and the extension 
of the fire limits in 1872, within which the erection of frame 
buildings was forbidden. This ordinance was amended in 1874, 
making the fire limits, with the above restrictions as to character 
of buildings, co-extensive with the limits of the city proper. 

The chiefs of the paid department have been — D. J\ Swenie, 
1859 ; IT. P. Harris, 1859—1868 ; R A. Williams, 1868—1873 ; 
M. Benner, 1873 — 1879, succeeded by the present incumbent, D. 
J. Swenie (1880). In 1875, the Board of Fire Commissioners 
was abolished and the fire department placed under the direct 
control of a fire marshal, responsible to the Mayor and Common 
Council of the city. 



The German Society of Chicago. 549 

The statistics of the Chicago fire department on the 1st of 
January, 1SS0, were as follows : Engines, twenty -nine; chemical 
engines, four; hook-and-ladder companies, eight; with a total, 
including officers, of 356 men. The value of all the property 
owned by the department was $965,822.92, of which $477,817.92 
was for apparatus, $281,800 for buildings, and $206,205 for real 
estate. 



THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF CHICAGO. 

BY MAX EBERHAKDT. 

Nihil est naturae hominis accommodatius quam beneflcentia. 

The German Society of Chicago (Deutsche Gesellschaft von 
Chicago, Illinois) was established in the month of May, 1854, 
under the name of Society for the Protection and Aid of German 
Immigrants (Huelfs-Verein fuer Deutsche Einwanderer), and 
owed its origin to the fact that both the vast increase and the 
growing importance of German immigration to this country 
called for some means of protection to those immigrants who 
were ignorant of onr language and the peculiar conditions of this 
country, and who, on that account, might easily be taken advan- 
tage of by the dishonest and unscrupulous in our community. 
Its first president was George Bormann, and its secretary, George 
Hillgaertner, who was then and afterwards so favorably known 
as being, among the editorial representatives of the German press 
of this country, one of the most earnest advocates of republican 
institutions. The society numbered 250 - members during the 
first year of its existence, and was soon recognized by all the lead- 
ing German citizens of Chicago as one of the most efficient benev- 
olent institutions in the West. 

The author of the little work, " A History of Chicago," which 
was published in the same year, points with pride to the estab- 
lishment of the German Society of Chicago, and, in defining its 
noble object, says: u This society has, as its name indicates, under- 
taken to assist immigrants in all cases where they need advice and 
support; especially, through its agent, to give them information 
as to proper opportunities to embark in business or agricultural 
pursuits; to assist them in obtaining employment, and in case they 
seek the protection of the courts against loss of property or in- 
jury to person caused by railway, steamboat, or express compa- 
nies; to furnish the sick and invalid with proper care and med- 
ical treatment; and, in general, to exercise, for the benefit of im- 



550 The German Society of C/dcago. 

migrants, a certain control over all means of transportation where- 
by the rights and interests of immigrants are so largely affected." 

In 1868 the society was re-incorporated, and its name changed 
to the present one. 

The great fire which affected the prosperity of nearly every 
German in the city, and the commercial panics which followed, 
were agencies which could not but seriously interfere with the 
benevolent w T ork of the German Society, but which were pow- 
erless in deadening its inherent vitality, and thwarting its 
native tendency to be a real benefactor to those in need and 
distress. At that most distressing time when our gr*eat but 
then panic-stricken city lay a helpless prey to one of the 
most destructive elements of nature, the German Society, through 
its officers, exercised a most praiseworthy influence on the man- 
agement of the general relief work which lightened the sufferings 
of those thousands of our people who had lost their homes, and 
the greater part, if not all, of their wealth and prosperity. 

Under careful and judicious management the German Society 
extended, during the years subsequent to the great fire, its be- 
nevolent work by giving aid and assistance, not only to immi- 
grants, but to all resident Germans who w r ere either poor or in 
temporary distress. Encouraged by the noble example set by 
Mr. George Schneider, for a number of years known as the 
efficient President of the National Bank of Illinois, to whose 
untiring efforts and disinterested zeal a great deal of the good 
work is due which has been accomplished by the German So- 
ciety, a large number of our German citizens have enlisted in 
that work. 

The annual reports of the Society, always replete with inter- 
esting facts and just observations bearing on the subject of im- 
migration and general relief work, have been the means whereby 
the Society has become known, not only in our own country, 
but also in Germany, as one of the leading institutions of its 
kind; and it is but just to observe here that the fact that there 
are various bills now pending in Congress for the protection of 
immigrants by the General Government, is due to the action 
the German Society took in first calling the attention of 
leading Congressmen to this important matter. 

The presiding officers of the German Society since its estab- 
Ishment — a period now extending over twenty-five years— were 
the following : George Bormann, Albert Borcherdt, G. H. 
Claussenius, Charles Rietz, George Schneider, Adolph Schoenin- 
ger, and latterly, again, for five successive terms,. Mr. George 
Schneider, whose name we have already mentioned in giving a 
brief account of our society in these pages. 



Erring Woman '«$ Refuge. 551 



ERRING WOMAN'S REFUGE. 

BY MRS. J. W. MILLS. 

Tins institution lias for its object, according to its charter, " the 
relief and protection, care and reformation of such erring women 
as may voluntarily place themselves under its care, or may be so 
placed by their parents or guardians, or by any municipal corpo- 
ration, or otherwise according to law." 

Until the year 1863, no special provision had been made by 
Protestants, for these outcasts from society and human sympathy. 
Then, as now, " palaces of sin," and " dens of infamy" stood on 
every hand with open doors to lure the weak, the depraved, the 
ignorant, the innocent. But for a repentant wanderer from the 
paths of virtue there was in all the wide city no home where she 
could claim of right, protection and aid by which she might strug- 
gle back to a life of purity. This state of things so pressed upon 
the hearts of a few Christian women that in February, 1863, they 
resolved, in the face of every discouragement, to begin the too 
long neglected work. Perchance it was not too late, even then, to 
follow the example of Him who came to " seek and save the lost." 
In October of the same year a permanent society was organized, 
constitution adopted and officers elected. Mrs. "W". W. Everts, 
President; Mrs. E. S. Wadsworth, Vice-President; Mrs. J. W. 
Dean, Secretary ; Mrs. "W. H. Clarke, Treasurer. Also a Board 
of Managers, consisting of ladies from each Protestant denom- 
ination of the city. (But one of the original forty Managers 
remains on the Board — Mrs. S. F. .Norcross, who has been Pres- 
ident since the death of Mrs. Everts, in October, 1866.) 

Let no one imagine it was an easy task these women had under- 
taken; public opinion was against them; even the few who 
wished them God-speed had little faith in the work, but they 
had counted the cost and knew no such word as failure. The 
question of ways and means, financially, was a serious one under 
such circumstances; meet it they must, at the very outset, for 
shelter and food and fuel and clothing, even for outcasts, are not 
" without money and without price." Surely they needed a faith 
akin to that which could remove mountains ! The first home the 
Managers were able to provide for those who claimed their care 
was a little cottage in the North Division. A few months later 
they removed to a somewhat larger house in the South Division. 



552 Erring Woinan y s Refuge. 

Two years from the beginning of the enterprise — May 1, 1865 — 
the family, consisting of Matron and ten or more inmates, took 
possession of a commodious building situated on the corner of 
Indiana Ave. and 31st St.; lot, 150 by 135 feet; house, 50 feet 
square; valuation, $10,500. This property the managers, after 
due deliberation, had decided to purchase. Their appeals for aid 
met a generous response, $7,000 being raised in a short time. 
By legislative act the same year, they became a corporate body 
under their present name. Tuthill King, Esq., made the first 
donation for the endowment of the institution in 1864 — land one 
hundred feet square on the corner of Lake and Peoria Sts. Soon 
after ¥m. B. Ogden gave $5,000 in railroad bonds for the same 
purpose. Tuthill King, Esq., James K. Burtis and Richard S. 
Thomas were then elected Trustees by the board. The necessity 
of solicitation for current expenses was obviated, in 1869, by an 
act of the General Assembly, dividing certain city fines between 
the " House of the Good Shepherd" and the Refuge (these fines 
have been only partially paid to the Refuge for some years). 

From the time of removal to the new home the managers felt 
that this charity rested on a solid foundation, and prosecuted 
their work with renewed zeal. For ten years it steadily increased 
until it outgrew the capacity of the house. The demand for more 
room and greater conveniences, especially in the way of work 
rooms, hospital and nursery, became imperative. Wise counsel 
was taken resulting in a decision to build on the south half of 
the same lot. The winter of 1876 saw the completion of the 
present spacious and admirably constructed building. The will 
of the late Johnathan Burr bequeathed property amounting to 
twenty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-one dollars ($21,261) 
to the Refuge as an endownment fund. By this bequest the be- 
ginning and consummation of this enterprise was made possible. 
The finances were so skillfully and faithfully managed by the 
Trustees, that this result was obtained without infringing on the 
wishes of the testator in regard to the fund. From the founding 
of this charity to the present time, the aim of the Managers has 
been to make it a Christian Home. Recognizing the necessity of 
a changed heart to bring about a changed life, they have striven 
to throw around the inmates every influence that can renovate, 
purify, and exalt. Knowing, too, that it is worse than folly to 
send them out into the world again without established habits 
of industry, they have used every means in their power to have 
them become proficient in some pursuit by which they can 
honorably maintain themselves. 

The industries of the house, under the supervision of the 
matrons, keep all hands busy during the day, and, it is hoped, 



Wat&r Suj)j)Jy for Chicago. 553 

will in time make the institution largely self-supporting. The 
evenings are devoted to school, recreation, and religious services. 
On Sabbath there is a sermon or Bible reading in the chapel by 
minister or layman, and Bible-class in the evening. It is im- 
possible, and perhaps unnecessary, to enter into details in such 
an article as this. The work accomplished through the instru- 
mentality of the Refuge, is not to be told in words or measured 
in time. Only a brief statement of facts is here attempted. 
Since the small beginning in IS 03. nearly eleven hundred girls 
and women, the majority under twenty years of age, have been 
under its care. Of these many are to-day living useful and 
happy lives; some have died in full assurance of a blessed im- 
mortality; some are still righting the battle between their evil 
natures and an awakened conscience. Of many others it must 
be said : Alas! there seems to be no hope. 

Thus for seventeen years have the managers toiled on, often 
finding themselves weary and faint-hearted, for the inherent dif- 
ficulties of the work are great. The outside world — even the 
Christian world, in this year of grace. 1880 — lias too little sym- 
pathy and too little faith in their endeavors to give them much 
cheer. Meantime, the evil with which they are contending 
keeps pace with the marvelous growth of this fair city. They 
dare not take one step backward: they must press onward, for 
the words of the Master are ever ringing in their ears: "Inas- 
much as .ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not 



WATER SUPPLY FOR CHICAGO. 

TAKEX FEOM COLBEEt's HISTOEY OF CHICAGO. 

To supply the people of this fast growing city with water of 
sufficient purity and in ample quantity, was a long vexed prob- 
lem. In the days of the village and town the needed supply 
was drawn directly from the river, then unpointed by the sewer- 
age of a city, or taken from the lake. The latter was the prin- 
cipal source of supply after the township organization, when one 
of the citizens, whose name is not preserved, found it profitable 
to peddle water round the streets at so much per bucket lull. 
In 1S36, the year before the incorporation of the city, the State 
Legislature passed a law incorporating the " Chicago Hydrau- 
lic Company." The incorporators named in the bill were 
James H. Campbell, Gholsen Kercheval, R. A. Kinzie, E. J. 
Hamilton, H. G. Hubbard, David Hunter, Peter Cohen, E. \Y. 
Casey, G. S. Hubbard, G. W. Dole, J. H. Kinzie, TTilliam For- 
sythe, and Solomon "Wells. The capital stock was limited to 



554 Water Supply for Chicago. 

$250,000. The water carts had it all their own way, however, 
for four years longer. Owing to the financial difficulties follow- 
ing the panic of 1837 the company was not formed till 1839. It 
commenced operations in 1840. The .company built a reservoir 
at the corner of Lake street and Michigan avenue, on the ground 
now occupied by the Adams House, about twenty : five feet 
square and eight feet deep, elevated about eighty feet above the 
surface of the ground, and erected a pump, connecting it by an 
iron pipe with the Lake, laid on a crib work pier, running into 
the lake about one hundred and fifty feet. This pump was 
worked by a steam engine of twenty -Jive horse power. The 
water was distributed to the citizens through logs bored at the 
" works," five inches for the main lines and three inches for the 
subordinate ones. In 1812 James Long entered into arrange- 
ments with the Hydraulic Company to do all the pumping for 
the supply of the city with water for ten years, without cost to 
the company, for and in consideration of the free use of the sur- 
plus power of their twenty-five horse engine. In a letter read 
at the formal opening of the lake tunnel, Mr. Long thus refers 
to the difficulties of the primitive situation : "In winter the 
pipes on the pier would be disarranged by the heaving of the 
frost, and I had frequently to spend hours at a time to caulk up 
the joints by throwing on water and thus freezing up the cracks 
before we could make the pump available. When the end of 
this pipe from the pier was first put down it was three or four 
feet below the surface of the lake, but in 1842-3 the lake had 
receded so far as frequently to leave the end out of water, par- 
ticularly when the wind blew from the south." But it was soon 
found that a large extension was needed. Long before the above 
named contract had expired the twenty-five horse power engine 
had become too small even without doing the extra work ex- 
pected of it. 

On the 15th day of February, 1851, an act passed by the Leg- 
islature was approved by the executive of the State, giving ex- 
istence to the Chicago City Hydraulic Company, and John B. 
Turner, A. S. Sherman, and H. G. Loomis, were appointed to 
constitute the first Board of Water Commissioners. They en- 
tered on the duties of their office on the 16th day of June fol- 
lowing. Ten days later the Board employed William J. Mc- 
Alpine, an engineer of considerable reputation in those days, to 
make -the necessary surveys for the works, and to report, with 
plans, for the purpose of enabling the Commissioners to carry 
the act into execution. On the 24th day of October he sub- j 
mitted a plan which was subsequently adopted. It was based' 1 
on the estimate that at the expiration of fifteen years the popula- 



Water Supply for Chicago. 555 

tion of the city would be one hundred thousand souls. This cal- 
culation was thought, by very many, to be an extravagant one; 
but at the end of the time mentioned, October, 1866, the popula- 
tion was more than double that amount. The estimated cost of 
the works was about §335,500. The annual expense of running 
them was estimated at $18,000. 

In April and August, 1852, two loans were effected with 
Messrs. Duncan, Sherman & Co., of I^ew York, bonds being 
issued to the amount of four hundred thousand dollars, bearing 
interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, aud having twenty- 
five years to run. The net amount realized from the sale of the 
bonds was $361,280. The work was almost immediately com- 
menced, but the Board were very much impeded in their move- 
ments by an injunction issued at the instance of the Hydraulic 
Company. A committee of the Common Council had, during the 
preceding March, recommended that the city pay to the company 
thirty thousand dollars for its property and franchises, or fifteen 
thousand dollars for the franchise alone, but the company never in- 
timated its willingness to accept the offer, and stood out resolutely 
to withstand any encroachments upon what had been heretofore 
an exclusive privilege. The difficulty was subsequently arrang- 
ed to the satisfaction of both parties. The work was then proceed- 
ed with as rapidly as the limited facilities of that period allowed. 

The following is a brief sketch of the works as originally built : 

The works were located on the lake shore near Chicago avenue. 
A timber crib, twenty by forty feet, was sunk six hundred feet 
from the shore, and from this crib a wooden inlet pipe of thirty 
inches interior diameter, laid in a trench on the bottom of the 
lake, conveyed the water to the pumping well, which was placed 
under the engine house, and was twenty-five feet deep. The end 
of the inlet pipe was of iron, and made to bend down to the 
bottom of the well, acting like a syphon. The water flowed into 
the well by its own gravity, and thence was forced by the engines 
into the mains, and thence into the reservoir in the South Divis- 
ion — the first built. It was conveyed thence to the distributing 
pipes in the various parts of the city. 

The engine house was built of brick in the modern Italian 
style. The main building w T as fifty-four feet front and thirty- 
four feet deep, with two wings, each forty-four by thirty-four 
feet. The main building w r as carried up two stories high, the 
wing one story. In the centre of the main building a tower was 
constructed, 14 feet square at the base, and 140 feet high, serving 
as a chimney for both boilers and a chamber for the standing 
column. This column was of cast iron pipe, twenty-four inches 
in diameter, connected with the pumps and main pipes, and 



556 Water Supply for Chicago. 

serving as a regulator in keeping up a uniform head of water in 
the reservoir. The engine was about two hundred horse power. 
There was also a smaller one kept for use in case of accident to 
the principal engine. 

In December, 1853, water was first pumped into the pipes to 
test them, and the first hydrant was opened on North Clark street, 
near the bridge. In February, 1854, water was first introduced 
into the houses. 

The reservoir building was completed in November, 1854, and 
was located near the corner of Adams and Clark streets, two 
stories high, with a tank capable of holding 500,000 gallons of 
water ; the tank was designed to hold a night supply for 50,000 
inhabitants ; the surface of the water 'was eighty- three feet above 
the level of the lake. Two other reservoirs were afterwards con- 
structed for the other divisions of the city, viz: on Sangamon 
street, near Monroe, and on Chicago avenue, near Franklin street, 
and the distribution pipes were gradually thrown all over the 
city till at the close of the year 1862 there were nearly 105 miles 
of pipes laid, including mains. Since then about 90 additional 
miles have been put down, making a total of 195 lineal miles in 
the city to the end of 1868. 

Another decade had passed, and the growing necessities of the 
people became more and more pressing, and early in 1863 the 
matter became one of absorbing interest. The progress of the 
war was the national excitement ; the raising of troops was the 
State concern, and the quality of water which w T as, and the quan- 
tity which, in the future, could be delivered, was a local civic 
consideration which exercised the private citizen, public copora- 
tions, and municipal bodies. 

Many suggestions were made, and many plans submitted for 
the remedy of the evil. Pipes along the lake shore; pipes out 
into the lake; filtering pipes along its margin; deep cuts from 
river to lake; fanning mills and Archimedean screws; pipes at 
Bridgeport, and many other devices w T ere all thought of. Some 
of them were tried, and all, in succession, were rejected as im- 
practicable. All of these plans sought to cleanse the Chicago 
river from its accumulation of filth, and to provide an ample sup- 
ply of pure drinking water. The sanitary condition of the city, 
good as it was, might be bettered by action, and the enterprise of 
the citizens would brook little delay which could be overcome by 
treasure and by invention. Public opinion at length compelled 
the Common Council to take action, and it joined with the Board 
of Public Works in completing a contract with Mr. Preston, 
Superintendent of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, by which a 
portion of the water of the Calumet river should be diverted 



Water Supply for Chicago. 557 

through the feeder and pumped into the river, thus creating an 
artificial current, which should carry off the imparities of the 
stream. This was but a partial relief, and it could not be other- 
wise, for it availed us nothing when the canal was in disuse. 
Several schemes were next proposed, as follows : To divert the 
water of the Calumet and the Desplaines Rivers into the Chicago 
River bj means of the feeder and the use of pumps. To this it 
was objected that the supply of water would be inadequate, while 
the adoption of the plan would involve the city in interminable and 
expensive chancery suits, the diversion of the current of the streams 
and of the canal seeming necessarily to encroach upon rights which 
had vested in the canal company, and in the owners of mill prop- 
erty and water privileges on the canal and on the running streams. 

A second plan suggested was to build a series of intercepting 
sewers, similar in their nature to those which have lately been 
erected in the city of London, for the purification of the river 
Thames. These, it was thought by some, could be constructed 
along the margin of the river, as reservoirs for the filth passing 
within its borders, and from the sewers, the contents thus received 
being emptied into the lake, or distributed over the country for 
purposes of agriculture. This suggestion had a theoretical value. 
The largest city of the world adopted it, at an enormous expense, 
but to the time of its consideration here, no results had been de- 
duced which promised a certain or probable success. The ex- 
penditure of money would be very great, and the loss of time would 
be considerable, and on so great an experiment, which had not in 
itself a fair prospect of success, our people were unwilling to enter. 

The proposed ship canal had the appearance of being something 
feasible, but there was a barrier to its success. It needed con- 
gressional legislation, and to procure the necessary number of 
votes, the assent of Western Congressmen was asked to have 
four distinct lines of railroad communication to be built at the 
expense of the nation. Less than a canal could not be thought 
of, because citizens of towns upon the line and upon the river bank 
would be ill content to receive the surfeit of our surplus nastiness. 

A covered aqueduct was also proposed. This it was thought 
should be of the diameter of ten feet, to extend from the lake to 
the river, which it should enter at some point on the South Side, 
a point at about Sixteenth street being designated. To this plan it 
was objected that the obnoxious matter being empied into the lake 
so near the point whence the lake water would be drawn, it would be 
corrupted and increase rather than diminish the evil complained of. 

•Hesitation followed the promulgation of so many plans, to 
each of which so many objections were made. An impulse to 
further investigation and thought was, however, furnished by the 



558 Water Supply for Chicago. 

discovery and publication of the fact that there was a constant 
precipitation of decaying organic matter draining on to the lake 
shore, and rendering the shore water impure. At about the same 
time the controversy over the disposition of the City Cemetery 
was at its height. Investigation showed that notwithstanding 
the ordinances of the city forbidding it, some six hundred rebel 
corpses had been buried in that ground, which is interesected 
north and south by a slough, draining the whole cemetery into 
the lake but little north of the City Water Works. 

Circumstances required action, and all the energies of our 
prominent men were put into the fulfillment of some scheme. 
That water should be taken from the lake was resolved upon this 
year (1863), and on the 13th day of February the amended city 
charter of that year was approved, in which power was given 
to the city " to construct such aqueducts along the shore of 
Lake Michigan, or in the highways, or elsewhere in the said 
Cook county, and to construct such pumping works, break- 
waters, subsiding basins, filter beds and reservoirs, and to lay 
such water mains, and to make all other constructions in said 
county as shall be necessary in obtaining from Lake Michigan a 
sufficient supply of pure water for said city ;" "to extend aque- 
ducts, or inlet pipes, into Lake Michigan, so far as may be deemed 
necessary to insure a supply of pure water, and to erect a pier or 
piers in the navigable waters of said lake, for the making, pre- 
serving and working of said pipes or aqueducts." 

This action of the State Legislature was sanctioned by Con- 
gress, January 16th, of the following year, and being sanctioned, 
the tunnel was the accepted means of procuring water. 

Previous to this sanction being given, but subsequent to the 
action of the State Legislature, the bed of the lake was examined, 
with a view to test the feasibility of excavating the tunnel. In 
the month of June, 1863, the City Engineer, with some scientific 
aid, commenced boring to ascertain the nature of the bottom. 
The experiments were made first at some twenty feet from the 
shore. At about two hundred feet from the shore, the water 
being a little over twenty feet deep, there was blue clay under- 
lying a sandy covering. These experiments led to others. Two 
scows were towed into the lake and secured by anchors. From 
between these a two-inch gas pipe was lowered until it rested on 
the surface of the earth, the top being two or three feet above 
the surface of the water. Down this tube an augur was passed, 
both being capable of being lengthened by screwing additional 
parts to each. At three-quarters of a mile from the shore, the 
water being twenty feet deep, there was found a four-inch cover- 
ing of sand and thirty feet of blue clay. One and three-quarter 



Water Supply for Chicago. 559 

miles out, the water being thirty-one feet deep, the same sub- 
stratum was discovered. Two miles and a quarter due east of 
the Water Works, near the site of the crib as at present located, 
the water, being thirty feet deep, was clear and cool. The earth 
was penetratecTto the depth of thirty feet. Here was found a 
covering of sand and soft, mashy clay, with a clay becoming 
more hard and compact as it was more deeply penetrated. On 
June 16th, of the same year, the temperature of the water began 
to be tested. Its clearness was apparent, a small object being 
visible at a distance of eighteen feet, the water being, thirty-six 
feet deep. On the surface the thermometer showed, at three 
o'clock of the 16th day of June, sixty degrees, and at the bottom 
fifty-one and a half degrees. These experiments continued to be 
carried on with the like result of exhibiting a clay substratum, 
the approach to the shore, however, showing a deeper alluvial 
deposit, composed mainly of sand. 

After a careful discussion of the various methods which had 
been submitted, of securing to the city a supply of pure water, 
the Board of Public Works decided, early in 1863, to adopt the 
plan of carrying a tunnel out under the lake. The necessary 
drawings and specifications were at once made, and advertisements 
w T ere issued inviting proposals for the doing of the work. Bids 
were opened on the 9th of September, 1863, most of the parties 
submitting proposals being present at the opening. The bid^, 
seven in number, ranged from $239,548 to $1,056,000, as follows: 
James Andrews, Pittsburgh, Pa., $239,548; Dull & Gowan, 
Harrisburgh, Pa., $315,139; Walker, Wood & Robinson, New 
York, $315,000; Williams, McBean, Brown &Neilson, Chicago, 
$490,000; Hervey Nash, $40 per lineal foot; D. L. DeGolyer, 
Chicago, $620,000; William Baldwin, New York, $1,056,000. 

The great disparity in the bids arose from the difference of 
opinion which existed as to the character of the soil, some of the 
contractors thinking they would meet with sand and gravel in 
the course of the excavations, while others, expecting that the 
soil would be uniformly of clay, made reservations, throwing the 
responsibility of meeting with another kind of soil upon the 
city. Messrs. Dull & Gowan were the only contractors who 
made an unqualified bid. taking upon themselves all risks, and 
the contract was awarded to them. The Common Council grant- 
ed authority for that purpose on the 5th of October, and ordered 
the issue of the necessary bonds. The time originally fixed for 
the completion of the work was November, 1865. 

The point selected by the Board of Public Works for the com- 
mencement of the work was the lot occupied by the Pumping 
Works, at the east end of Chicago avenue, on the lake shore. It 



560 Water Supply for Chicago. 

was originally proposed to sink one land and two to four lake 
shafts at intermediate points between the east and west end of 
the tunnel, the lake shafts to consist of cast iron cylinders pro- 
tected by hollow, pentagonal cribs. This proposal was based on 
the supposition that that number might be required to complete 
the tunnel in two years. It was subsequently found that the lake 
shafts could be omitted, and this part of the plan was abandoned. 

The first ground was broken on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, 
1864, being two months after the time originally set, on account 
of the delay of the cylinders for the shore shaft, which were cast 
at Pittsburgh. The inauguration ceremonies were of an inter- 
esting character, and were witnessed by about a hundred gentle- 
men, among whom were Mayor Sherman, Messrs. Letz and Rose, 
of the Board of Public Works; Mr. S. S. Hayes, the City 
Comptroller; Mr. E. S. Chesbrough, U. P. Harris, and a major- 
ity of the members of the Common Council. The Mayor made 
a few remarks appropriate to the occasion, and they took then pick 
and broke the ground amid the cheers of the company. Each of 
the gentlemen then took a shovelful of earth and placed it in a 
wheelbarrow, which was taken outside by Mr. Gowan. 

After breaking ground the shore shaft was sunk on the site of 
the present pumping works. It was originally intended to con- 
struct the shaft wholly of brick, running it down from the sur- 
face of the ground to a depth of fifteen feet below the level of 
the lake, but the fact that a shifting quicksand had to be passed 
through compelled them to abandon that plan of operation. The 
contract was deviated from, and the contractors were authorized 
to run down an iron cylinder of the same dimensions as the 
center of the crib, as far as the bottom of the sand bed, about 
twenty-six feet. This inlet cylinder is nine feet in diameter, in- 
side, and two and a quarter inches thick. It was put down in 
four sections of about nine feet in length. 

From the shore shaft the tunnel extends two miles out in a 
straight line at right angles with the shore, pointing about two 
points to the north of east. The clear width of the tunnel is five 
feet, and the clear height, five feet and two inches, the top and 
bottom arches being semi-circles. It is lined with brick masonry 
eight. inches thick, in two rings or shells, the brick being laid 
lengthwise of the tunnel, with toothing joints. The bottom of 
theinside surface of the bore a the east end is sixty-six feet be- 
low water level, or sixty-four feet below city datum, and has a 
gradual slope towards the shore of two feet per mile, falling four 
feet in the whole distance, to admit of it being thoroughly 
emptied in case of repairs, the water being shut off at the crib 
by means of a gate. The work has been laid in brick eight 



Water Supply for Chicago. 50 1 

inches thick all round, well set in cement. The lower half of 
the bore is constructed in such a manner that the bricks lie 
against the clay, while in the upper half the bricks are wedged 
in between the brick and the clay, thus preventing any danger 
-which might result from the tremendous pressure which it was 
feared might burst in the tunnel. 

The tunnel as now constructed will deliver, under a head of 
two feet, 19,000,000 gallons of water daily; under a head of eight 
feet, 38,000,000 gallons daily, and under a head of eighteen feet, 
57,000,000 gallons daily. The velocities for the above quantities 
will be one and four-tenths mile per hour, head being two feet; 
head being eight feet, the velocity will be two and three-tenths 
miles per houe, and the head being eighteen feet the velocity will 
be four and two-tenths miles per hour. By these means it will 
be competent to supply one million people with fifty seven gal- 
lons each per day, with a head of eighteen feet. 

The excavations were commenced immediately after the ground 
was broken. "With regard to the character of the work, the ma- 
terial met with in the process of excavation was stiff blue clay 
throughout, so that the anticipation of the contractors in this 
respect was fulfilled. The soil was found to be so uniform that 
only one leakage of water through the tunnel ever occurred, and 
that only distilling through a crevice at the rate of a bucket full 
in five minutes. This occurred in September, 1865. The work- 
men left in dismay, but soon returned and repaired the crevice. 
From that time no accident of any importance occurred to hinder 
the progress of the work, with the exception of one or two slight 
escapes of gas,*which resulted in nothing more serious than the 
singeing of a workman's whiskers. Several stones, varying from 
the size of an egg upwards, were met with, but very few in com- 
parison with the great mass of clay. The only fault to be found 
with the clay was, that it contained too much calcareous matter 
to make good bricks. 

The contractors claimed to have lost money on the work. They 
had calculated on being able to make their own bricks on the 
ground, but for the reason above stated, they were obliged. to 
procure bricks elsewhere. They pleaded, too, for increase of 
renumeration on the ground that they took the work when gold 
was at 125. The really signed the contract, however, when gold 
was 160. The matter was ultimately referred to the Committee 
on Finance, and upon their report being presented a lengthy 
argument was held on the legality of the appropriation, and the 
propriety of making it, the contract having been entered into by 
the city in good faith and the contractors being advised as to the 
price of gold. The bill for an extra appropriation passed, but 



562 Water Supply for Chicago. 

was vetoed "by the Mayor at the next council meeting, and was 
subsequently rec nsidered by the council and laid on the table. 
The contractors were, however, at one time authorized to draw a 
larger percentage upon their estimates than was provided for in 
the contract, amounting perhaps to about §25,000, and some 
$40,000 was allowed them in the shape of extras for work not 
specified in the contract, while no deductions were made from the 
price originally agreed upon, for the omission of the intermediate 
cribs which were found to be unnecessary. 

On the 25th of July, 1865, the giant crib for the east end of 
the tunnel was launched, in the presence of Governor Oglesby 
and a large concourse of citizens, and after being towed out, in 
safety, two miles from the shore, was there sunk. 

It is forty feet and a half high, and built in pentagonal form, 
in a circumscribing circle of ninety-eight and a half feet in 
diameter. It is built of logs one foot square, and consists of 
three walls, at a distance of eleven feet from each other, leaving 
a central pentagonal space having an inscribed circle of twenty- 
hve feet, within which is lixed the iron cylinder, nine feet in 
diameter, running from the water line to the tunnel, sixty-four 
feet below the surface and thirty-one feet below the bed of the 
lake at that point. The crib is thoroughly braced in every di- 
rection. It contains 750,000 feet of lumber, board measure, and 
150 tons iron bolts. It is filled with 4,500 tons of stone and 
weighs 5,700 tons. The crib stands twelve feet above the water 
line, giving a maximum area of 1,200 feet which can be exposed 
at one sweep to the action of the waves, reckoning the resistance 
as perpendicular. The outside was thoroughly caulked, equal to 
a first-class vessel, with three threads in each seam, the first and 
last being what is called " horsed." Over all these there is a 
layer of lagging to keep the caulking in place and protect the 
crib proper from the action of the waves. A covered platform 
or house was built over the crib, enabling the workmen to prose- 
cute the work uninterrupted by rain or wind, and affording a 
protection for the earth brought up from the excavation, and 
permitting it to be carried away by scows, whose return cargoes 
were bricks for the lining of the tunnel. The top of the cylinder 
was subsequently covered with a grating to keep out floating logs, 
fish, etc. A sluice made in the side of the crib was opened to 
let in the water, and a lighthouse is intended to be built over all. 
serving the double purpose of guarding the crib from injury by 
vessels and of showing the way to the harbor of Chicago. 

The first brick was laid at the crib end on the 22d of Decem- 
ber, 1865, and on the last day of the year the workmen began 
to excavate from that end, at which time they had already 4,825 
feet done from the shore. From that time the work progressed 



Water Supply for Chicago, 563 

steadily and with few interruptions of any consequence. In the 
early part of November, 1866, when within a few feet of meet- 
ing, the workmen met for the first time witli sand pockets, which 
caused leakage, and delayed the final blow till December 6th, 
when the last brick (which was a stone), was laid by Mayor J. B. 
Rice, in the presence of the Aldermen, city officials, and as many 
other prominent citizens as could be packed into the tunnel with- 
in hearing distance. 

Still another delay was experienced in the construction of the 
conduits to the new pumping works, and it was not until Mon- 
day, March 25th, 1867, that the water was let into the tunnel to 
flow through the water pipes and hydrants of the city. On that 
day the new water works were formally inaugurated by the lay- 
ing of the corner stone of a new tower, situated about half a 
block west of the old tower, and since completed to a total height 
of 130 feet, standing on a base of twenty-four feet square. 

The total cost of this the first lake tunnel to the city, including 
extras, preliminary examination, supervision, etc., was $457,845. 
The total water debt of the city was $2,483,000 in April, 1868. 

The following table shows -the number of miles of water-pipe 
laid down, and the average daily number of gallons supplied in 
each year since 1854: 



YEAR. 


MILES PIPE. 


GALL. DAILY. 


1354 


30i 
11 

9 

4i 
18* 
12f 

6 
131-7 

9 2-3 
13i 
13 
13i 
15 
23 
25 

31 3-10 
321 

15 3-10 
23 1-10 
40 6-10 
35 
23 6-10 

6 4-10 

8 2-10 

5 3-10 
13 2-10 


800,000 


1855 


2 250 000 


1856 


3,000,000 
3,500.000 
2 991 413 


1857 


1858 


1859 

I860 


3,877,119 
4 703 525 


1861 


4,841.520 
6,074,739 


1862 


1 863 


6.400,298 
6,913,259 
7,610,459 
8 681 536 


J864 


' " 






] 867 


11 569 273 


1868 


14,724,999 
18 633 278 


1-f .) 


] 870 


21 766 260 


1871 


23,464,877 

27 536 819 


l-S/2 


1 873 


32 117 312 


1874 • ... 


38,090,952 

?,<) 844 5n6 


1 875 


1876 


41 931 481 


1877 . 


52 183 892 


H78. .: 


53,600.789 
56 322 441 


1879 









564 Description of the New Lake Tunnel. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW LAKE TUNNEL. 

BY E. S. CHESBROUGH. 

In consequence of the unprecedented growth of the city, and 
the more than corresponding- increase in the consumption and 
waste of water, and the dread that existed even then of extensive 
conflagrations, the city council directed the Board of Public 
Works, in 1869, to take immediate action in reference to the fur- 
ther wants of the city. The Board reported the result of their 
investigations under date of October 15, the same year; and 
recommended the construction of an additional tunnel to start 
from the same crib as the old one, to run parallel with it to the 
old pumping works; thence under the city in a straight line to 
some point on the South Branch, not further east than llalsted 
St., nor further west than Ashland Ave.; the diameter of the 
tunnel to be seven feet, and its estimated capacity 100,000,000 
U. S. gallons in twenty-four hours. Owing to protracted dis- 
cussions in the city council, and vetoes of the mayor, and a sub- 
sequent injunction upon the proceedings of the Board of Public 
Works in relation to the letting of this work, its commencement 
was delayed until July 12th, 1872. The western end was fixed 
on the west side of Ashland Ave., just south of Blue Island 
Ave., where the pumping works could be supplied with coal 
either by rail or by vessel. 

In the construction of the new tunnel no serious difficulties 
were encountered except at two points — one at the crib and the 
other near Polk St. Each of these took several months to over- 
come, the one at the crib at an entire cost of about $10,000 to the 
city, and the one at Polk St. at a cost of about as much more, 
including damages to property caused by the settling of ground 
above the tunnel. 

The masonry in the tunnel was made about eleven inches 
thick. Its total length is six miles, and it is connected by a short 
cross or branch tunnel with the North Side pumping works, 
which immediately upon the completion of the new lake tunnel, 
received great relief, the water in the wells rising six or seven 
feet higher than it usually stood before. 

The estimated combined capacity of the old and th'e new lake 
tunnels is 150,000,000 U. S. gallons daily. The actual consump- 
tion of water has increased very greatly with the increased facili- 
ties for furnishing it, so that more pumping power is already 
demanded, and a new tunnel is considered a necessity in the not 
very distant future. 

The following is a statement of the 



Flood of 1849. 



565 



CONSUMPTION 


OF WATER IN YEARS PAST, AND WATER 
REVENUE. 




YEAR. 


o- rH 

'5 to 
ggg 

>>+2 So 

< 


]o CO 

II 

0>P 
bo - 

< 


Pi 

> 


H 


05 

u 

^£ 
bJD^ 

< 


a5 

Ph 

"ft 


to 
CD 


Remarks. 


185t 


800,000 
























6 




























s 


2,991.413 

3,877,119 

4.703.525 

4,841,520 

6.074.739 

6,400,298 

6,913,259 

7.610.459 

8,681,536 

11,562,-73 

14,624,999 

16.635.27S 

21,766,260 

23.464,877 

27,536.819 

32,117,352 

38,090,952 

39,844.556 

41,931,481 

52,183,892 

53,600,789 

56,322,441 


32.8 


$102,179 
122,948 
131,162 
150,290 
150,920 
190,886 
224,246 
252,441 
301.124 
337,468 
420,656 
476,968 
539,318 
446,265 
543,914 
708,834 
705,926 


28.29 
31.53 
35.86 
32.31 
40.25 
33.53 
30.87 
30.14 
2S.83 
34.24 
34.76 
34.09 
40.35 
53.58 
50.62 
45.31 
53.94 


72.4 
85.1 
91.0 
95:3 
104.9 
115.4 
127.3 
141.2 
152.2 
174.8 
208.6 
239.9 
272.4 
287.7 
310.8 
351.4 
386.4 
410.0 
416.4 
424.6 
429 9 




9 




I860 


43.0 




1 




2 


43.9 




3 




4 


40.8 
""43.3 




5 




6 








8 


58.4 




9 




1870 


72.8 
72.2 
74.5 




1 




2 ., 




3 




4„; 


96.3 




5... 




6 


103.0 
119.0 
122.7 
120.0 


831,555 
902,476 
944,190 
922,847 


50 42 
54.77 
61.77 
5 6.03 






6 IT. S. gallons 


8 


9 


441.11 (English)afailons. 



FLOOD OF 1849. 

The last thing one might expect in Chicago, situated as it is, 
on almost a dead-level, is a flood in one of the branches of its river. 
But this actually took place one fine morning in March, 1849. 
After a two or three days heavy rain, which had been preceded by 
hard snow storms during the latter part of the winter, the citizens 
of the town were aroused from their slumbers by reports that the 
ice in the Desplaines river had broken uj}; that its channel had 
become gorged" with it; that this had so dammed up its waters 
as to turn them into Mud Lake; that in turn, they were flowing 
thence into the natural estuary, which then connected the sour- 
ces of the South branch of the Chicago river with the Desplaines. 
These reports proved to be correct. Further, it was also rumored 
that the pressure of the waters was now breaking up the ice in the 
South branch and branches; that the branch was becoming gorged 
in the main channel at various points, and that if something 
were not done, the shipping, which had been tied up for the 
winter along the wharves, would be seriously damaged. 



566 Flood of 18 49. 

Of course each owner, or person in charge, at once sought 
the safety of his vessel, added additional moorings to those already 
in use, while all waited with anxiety and trepidation the result 
of the totally unexpected catastrophe. It was not long in com- 
ing. The river soon began to swell, the waters lifting the ice to 
within tw r o or three feet of the surface of the wharves; between 
nine and ten a. m. loud reports as of distant artillery were heard 
towards the southern extremity of the town, indicating that the ice 
was breaking up. Soon, to these were aclded the sounds proceed- 
ing from crashing timbers, from hawsers tearing away the piles 
around which they were vainly fastened, or snapping like so much 
pack-thread, on account of the strain upon them. To these in turn 
were succeeded the cries of people calling to the parties in charge 
of the vessels and canal boats to escape ere it would be too late; 
while nearly all the males, and hundreds of the female population, 
hurried from their homes to the banks of the river to witness 
what was by this time considered to be inevitable, namely, a 
catastrophe such as the city never before sustained. It was not 
long before every vessel and canal- boat in the south branch, ex- 
cept a few which had been secured in one or two little creeks, 
which then connected with the main channel, was swept with re- 
sistless force toward the lakes. As fast as the channel at one spot 
became crowded with ice and vessels intermingled, the whole 
mass would dam up the water, which, rising in the rear of the 
obstruction, would propel vessels and ice forward with the force 
of an enormous catapult. Every lightly constructed vessel 
would at once be crushed as if it were an egg-shell; canal- 
boats disappeared from sight under the gorge of ships and ice, 
and came into view below it in small pieces, strewing the surface 
of the boiling water. 

At length a number of vessels were violently precipitated 
against Randolph street bridge, then a comparatively frail struct- 
ure, and which was torn from its place in a few seconds, forc- 
ing its way into the main channel of the river. The gorge of 
natural and artificial materials — of ice and wood and iron — kept 
on its resistless way to the principal and last remaining bridge 
in the city, on Clark St. This structure had been constructed on 
piles, and it was supposed would prevent the vessels already 
caught up by the ice from being swept out into the lake. 

But the momentum already attained by the great mass of ice, 
which had even lifted some of the vesselsjjodily out of the water, 
was too great for any ordinary structure of wood, or even stone 
or iron to resist, and the moment this accumulated material 
struck the bridge, it was swept to utter destruction, and with a 
crash, the noise of which could be heard all over the then city, 



Flood of 1849. 567 

while the ice below it broke up with reports as if from a whole 
park of artillery. The scene just below the bridge after the ma- 
terial composing the gorge had swept by the place just occupied 
by the structure, was something that bordered on the terrific. 

The cries and shouts of the people, the crash of timbers, the 
toppling over of tall masts, which were in many cases broken 
short off on a level with the decks of the vessels, and the appear- 
ance of the crowds fleeing terror-stricken from the scene through 
Clark and Dearborn streets, were sounds and sights never to be 
forgotten by those who witnessed them. At State street, where 
the river bends, the mass of material was again brought to a 
stand, the ice below resisting the accumulated pressure, and the 
large number of vessels in the ruck, most of which were of the 
best class, the poorer ones having previously been utterly destroyed, 
helping to hold the whole together. In the meantime several 
canal boats, and in one instance a schooner with rigging all 
standing, were swept under this instantaneously constructed 
bridge, coming out on the eastern side thereof in shapeless masses 
of wTeck, in the instance of the schooner, and of matchwood in 
the instances of the canal boats. Presently the ice below this 
last gorge began to give way, clear water appearing, while a 
view out into the lake showed that there was no ice to be seen. 
It was then that some bold fellows armed with axes, sprang 
upon the vessels thus jammed together, and in danger of de- 
struction. 

Among the foremost and most fearless were : P. C. Bristol, of 
the forwarding house of Bristol & Porter; Alvin Calhoun, a 
builder, brother to John Calhoun, founder of the Chicago 
Democrat newspaper, and father of Mrs. Joseph K. C. 
Forrest, Cyrus P. Bradley, subsequently Sheriff, and Chief 
of Police, and Darius Knights, still an employe of the city. 
These gentlemen, at the risk of their lives succeeded in detach- 
ing the vessels at the Eastern end of the gorge, one by one, from 
the ruck, until finally some ten or twelve large ships, relieved 
from their dangerous positions, floated out into the lake, their 
preservers proudly standing on their decks, and returning with 
salutes, the cheers of the crowd on shore. Once in the lake, the 
vessels were secured, in some cases by dropping the anchors, and 
in others by being brought up at the piers by the aid of hawsers. 

The Democrat of the 14rth, in its record of the event, says 
(speaking of the upper jam) : " Below all this lies another more 
solid dam, composed of larger vessels, and consequently stronger 
material, wedged in so firmly as to defy extraction. * * * * 
Thus is formed one of the most costly bridges ever constructed 
in the West, and the only one Chicago now boasts of. Crowds 



568 Horse-Railroads of Chicago. 

of persons were at the wrecks yesterday, and crowded the decks 
of the various vessels. Many ladies were not afraid to venture 
over this novel causeway, beneath which the water roared, falling 
in cascades from one obstruction to another, the whole forming 
perhaps the most exciting scene ever witnessed here." 

The Journal of the same date gives the folio wing: " The Ran- 
dolph street bridge and the schooner Mahala sunk at the mouth of 
the river yesterday together. * * The schooner Diamond, which 
was carried down the river yesterday, upon reaching the vessels 
wedged in near the lighthouse, was forced by the current com- 
pletely under them, and came up on the other side. She was not 
badly broken, and now lies bottom up between the piers. There 
were a number of persons on the canal boats which were~swept 
into the lake. One poor fellow waved his handkechief as a sig- 
nal of distress, about ten miles out, during the afternoon, but 
there was no boat which could be sent to his assistance. * * * 
ISTo mails left the city last night. All egress is prevented by high 
water and impassible state of the roads. We do not hear of a 
bridge that has escaped." 



HORSE-RAILROADS OF CHICAGO. 



BY AUGUSTINE "W. WKIGHT. 



August 16, 1858, an ordinance passed the Common Council of 
Chicago, granting permission to Henry Fuller, Franklin Parmlee 
and Liberty Bigelow, with such other persons as might thereafter 
become associated with them, to lay a single or double track 
with turnouts, side-tracks and switches, to be operated by horse- 
power, along the following streets, provided said tracks should 
not be laid within twelve feet of the sidewalk, except on curves. 
On State street, from Lake to the then city limits ; Ringgold 
place, State to Cottage Grove avenue ; on the latter to the then 
city limits ; Archer road from State to then city limits ; Madi- 
son from State to then city limits. These privileges were to be 
forfeited unless the construction of one of said railroads should 
be commenced before November 1, 1858. This company was 
incorporated under the title of the Chicago City Railway, and 
the act approved Feb. 4, 1S59. Work was begun within the 
time specified on State street, and ground broken by Henry Ful- 
ler, in front of Garrett Block, near Randolph, with appropriate 
ceremonies. The first spike was driven by Gov. Bross, thus in- 
augurating our horse railway system. 



Horse-Railroads of Chicago. 569 

By May 1, 1859, a single track was completed from Madison 
to Twenty-second street, on State, and two horse-cars were run 
every twelve minutes. In the summer of 1859, the track was 
extended on Twenty-second and Cottage Grove avenue to Thirty- 
first, and just before the United States Fair opened in the fall of 
1859, cars were run every six minutes, as far as Twenty-second 
street. 

During this time the track on Madison street was laid to 
" Bull s Head " — Ogden avenue. 

At the same time like privileges were granted W. B. Ogden, 
John B. Turner, Charles Y. Dyer, James H. Rees and Yolentine 
C. Turner, by the name of the North Chicago City Railway for 
the North Division. The company was authorized to lay a sin- 
gle or double track, commencing at the intersection of Clark and 
North "Water, thence north on Clark to Green Bay Roadj along 
latter to present or future city limits; on Division from Clark to 
Clybourn avenue, on latter to Racine road, thence on the same 
line to northern city limits; on Michigan from Clark to Rush, 
on Rush to Chicago avenue, thence on Green Bay road to Wol- 
cott, thence to Elm, west on Elm to Clark; also on Wells from 
from North Water to Division, on latter to Sedgwick, north on 
Sedgwick to Green Bay road; also on Chicago avenue from Rush 
to River. This company commenced running its cars in Aug- 
ust, 1859, on Clark between North Water and Fullerton avenue, 
and on Chicago avenue between Clark and North Branch of the 
river. At that time Ciark street was planked, and the first track 
was laid by spiking a "center bearing" rail directly upon the 
street planks, and putting an additional thickness of plank in 
the horse path. 

The track was laid double to Division street and a single track 
of "T" rail extended from the latter point to Fullerton avenue. 
The first car was purchased from Eaton, Gilbert & Co., of 
Troy, N. Y. 

May 23, 1859, the Common Council passed an ordinance 
authorizing the Chicago City Railway Company to extend its 
tracks as follows: On Lake from Market to western city limits; 
on Randolph from State to Lake, at Union Park; on Desplaines 
from Lake to Milwaukee avenue, and along latter to present or 
future city limits; on Canal from Lake to Polk; on Harrison 
from Canal to Southwestern plank road; on Market from Lake 
to Madison; on Wells from Randolph to Polk, and on Polk to 
Canal, south on Canal to Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail- 
road; on Clark from Randolph to Polk, west on Polk to Wells; 
on Yan Buren from State to Southwestern Plank Road ; on Har- 
rison street from Canal to Blue Island avenue, and along lat- 



570 Horse-Bailroads of Chicago. 

ter to Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad; on Twelfth, 
State to Wabash avenue, thence south to Old, on Old to Indiana 
avenue, along latter to intersection with Cottage Grove. Ran- 
dolph street track had to be completed within three months from 
State to Union Park, Lake street same time, South Wells to Polk, 
and Van Buren street line in eighteen months,. Canal and Blue 
Island within one year. Others as soon as practicable, unless 
ordered to be done sooner by the Common Council. February 
21, 1861, E. P. Ward, William K. McAllister, Samuel B. Walk- 
er, James L. Wilson, Charles B. Brown, Nathaniel P. AYilder, 
and their successors, were incorporated as the Chicago West 
Division Railway Company, and authorized " to acquire, unite 
and exercise any of the powers, franchises, privileges or immuni- 
ties conferred upon the Chicago City Railway Company upon 
such terms and conditions as might by contract between the said 
railway corporations be prescribed." 

The aforementioned grants covered 70 miles, 1,960 feet of 
horse railroad tracks, for a city of less than 90,000 inhabitants, 
and evidenced a " far-sightedness " and faith in the ultimate 
growth of the city, which is proverbially one of the character- 
istics of Chicago's wide-awake citizens, and they have never yet 
had cause for complaint, for day by day, week by week, month 
by month, and year by year our city continues a growth that is 
the wonder of all nations. 

The charters require the company operating the road to keep 
eight feet in width when there is a single track, and sixteen feet 
in widtii when the track is double, in as good repair and condi- 
tion as the balance of the street, and limits the fare to five cents 
for any distance. 

The level surface of the ground upon which this city is built, 
in conjunction with wide streets, is favorable to street railways, 
but the bridges over the river present great and growing impedi- 
ments to communication. A recent count at Clark street bridge, 
showed that between the hours of 7 a. m. and 7 p. m., 32,467 
vehicles crossed, while the bridge was swung 84 times. 

WEST DIVISION RAILWAY. 
J. Russell Jones, President ; Jas. K. Lake, Superintendent. 

Number of miles run, 1879 4,524,009 

Number of trips, 1879 645,466 

Number of men now on pay-roll 1,200 

Number of horses now owned 2,103 

Number of miles of single track 67 

Amount expended in repairs of streets and track, 1878 $93,896 

Number of cars starting every hour 150| 






Horse- Railroads of Chicago. 571 

CHICAGO CITY RAILWAY. 
S. B. Cobb, President ; C. B. Holmes, Superintendent. 

Number of miles run, 1879 3,029,500 

Number of horses now owned 1,39(5 

Number of miles of single track 44 

N umber of regular cars starting every hour 73 

NORTH CHICAGO CITY RAILWAY. 
V. C Turner, President; M. W. Squires, Superintendent. 

Number of miles run, 1879 1,720,031 

" " " " I860 • 167,561 

Number of trips, 1879 273,031 

" " 1860 41,890 

Number of men on pay-roll 400 

Number of horses now owned 910 

Number of miles of single track 27 

Number of regular cars starting every hour. 60 



Total number of horses now owned by the three di- 
visions 4,409 

Total number of miles of single track operated by 

the three divisions 138 

Total number of cars starting every hour by the 

three divisions 283 



572 Convention of I860- 



CONVENTION OF 1860. 

Two opposing forces grew into antagonism in the United 
States within the memory of middle-aged men now lining. 

This antagonism, that had been gathering force during a gen- 
eration in its progress, had gradually obliterated party lines, and 
substituted an issue on a real principle in political economy for 
the old one which had existed between the Whigs and the 
Democrats. 

The old issue grew out of an honest difference of opinion on 
financial questions, such as tariff, banking and public improve- 
ments; the Whigs being the ambitious and progressive element, 
and the Democrats claiming to be the cautious regulators to 
apply the brakes upon hasty and ill-digested legislation. But 
at the time when the new issue came into existence the old 
one had lost its national character and become effete. The new 
issue was on the subject of slavery, and dispite all efforts on the 
part of statesmen, as well as divines, to bury it beneath some plas- 
tic subterfuge, it came up in 1856 in its naked proportions, at the 
Philadelphia convention which nominated Fremont as candidate 
for President of the United States to represent the principles of 
the new party. The issue that now divided the country prac- 
tically involved the existence of slavery. Financial questions 
were lost sight of, and had little or no part in it. 

It was the first time in the history of the country that an issue 
had grown up in the popular heart exempt from any other but 
conscientious principles as to what policy should best promote 
justice, as well as national honor. The situation in the United 
States at that time resembled that of England when the common- 
wealth displaced the reigning dynasty on a religious question. 
It w T as the higher law in both cases that the new party was con- 
tending for, and in both it was the first time that either country, 
by the force of public opinion only, succeeded in establishing a 
moral tribunal by which to overturn the majesty of legal forms. 

!No one will deny that this was the case in England in the 
days of Cromwell, and the proof that such was the case in the 
United States in the political campaign of 1860, is found in the 
fact that after the war which followed it, the Constitution had to 
be changed to comply with the changes it had wrought. The 
attempt to compass the desired end, brought to light in 1856 at 
the Philadelphia Kepublican Convention, the first of its kind, 
proved a failure. 



Convention of 1860. 573 

The moral sense of its advocates was deeply wounded, but they 
bore the humiliation in silence, with no letting down of their 
purposes; on the contrary, they gathered strength as the time drew 
near for another trial in 1860. And now no prestige, no favor- 
itism, no conventional forms or local rights must stand in the 
way of the fulfilment of the great popular voice that transcended 
everything. In vain may history be searched for such a sub- 
lime episode when so complete a submission was made to a prin- 
ciple as the Chicago Convention of 1860 personified. It is 
doubtful if Chicago is ever again destined to such honors as fell 
upon her when she was selected as the most appropriate place 
for this convention. It was a compliment paid to the moral 
sense of her rising mind, to the magnanimity of her national 
policy, to her immunity from local prejudice, to her bold and 
original conceptions, and to her youthful and impulsive force, so 
essential to the success of the work which the convention were 
about to undertake. More than all this, it was a proof that her 
interests were locally interwoven with every part of the United 
States, not only by the physical forces of nature, but by the fra- 
ternizing influences that grow out of them through the channels 
of commerce. 

As soon as the selection was made, prompt action was taken 
by Chicago's leading citizens to make preparation for the occas- 
ion, commensurate with its importance. The first thing to be 
done was to provide a place for its sessions, and to this end anew 
and original plan was proposed. It was to erect a building on 
purpose. The proposal was received with favor so universal, that 
by voluntary subscriptions, the bulk of which was not over ten 
dollars from each giver, the building was erected. It consisted 
of an immense audience room arranged like an amphitheatre, 
whose roof was supported by numerous upright posts. It was 
christened The Wigwam. 

The convention was unlike any that had ever preceded it. 
Beneath the noisy demonstrations that always accompany such 
gatherings, like the froth that floats upon the surface of deep wa- 
ters, w T as a silent force, the offspring of that kind of philosophy 
which might be called Antinomian in its character; a philosophy 
that accepts things for what they are worth, and not for wmat 
they appear to be; a philosophy that sees the sublimest truths in 
simple formula, and beholds a direct road to national grandeur, 
unobstructed by the vagaries of partisans; a philosophy that 
could be charitable without complicity, discreet without being 
exclusive, prudent without being intolerant, conservative without 
a letting doiwn of principle, and more tenacious for substance 
than for theory. Who could fill such a measure? Who could step 



574 Convention of 1860. 

into the arena impervious to the shots of envy, hatred and malice 
destined to be hurled against him from an old party whose long 
lease of power had confirmed it in its defensive measures of ex- 
treme constitutional rights? 

Horace Greeley was then a potent force in the new party. All 
eyes were turned to him for support, and no doubt exists that, 
had he given Mr. Seward his hearty support from the first, he 
would have been elected as the nominee at the first balloting of 
the convention. Eveiy influence that the ingenuity of Mr. 
Seward's friends could suggest was early brought to bear upon 
Mr. Greeley in his behalf, but the venerable printer was imper- 
vious to any pressure that could be brought upon him. He did 
not oppose Mr. Seward, but the fact that he had not advocated 
his cause, added to the fact that the Press and Tribune, the 
Journal and the Democrat, of Chicago, had from the first been 
earnest supporters ot Abraham Lincoln as the nominee, pre- 
vented hasty action in the convention and held back the party 
leaders in abeyance to public sentiment. In the hands of the 
latter, Mr. Lincoln's nomination was assured, for the convention 
dared not disobey its mandates. Besides this, the very atmos- 
phere of Chicago was charged in his favor by a subtle and irre- 
sistible force, before which all other pretensions vanished, and 
when the day set for the opening of the convention arrived an 
impressive circumspection reigned throughout the hall, and even 
extended its influence into the broad open air of the streets out- 
side; for among the many thousands gathered there, were a good- 
ly number whose maturity of intellect rose above the average 
mind, and leavened the whole lump with a full measure of 
gravity appropriate to the occasion. The convention commenced 
its sittings on the 16th of May, 1860, and continued till the 19th. 
It was composed of 466 delegates, 234 of whom were necessary 
for a choice. On the third ballot Lincoln received 354 votes, 
which result was announced to the audience, and loud and long 
continued cheers from them sufficiently vouched the action of 
the delegates by unmistakable signs of enthusiasm. Hannibal 
Hamlin, of Maine, was nominated on the next ballot for vice- 
president by 367 votes. The news flew to every part of the 
country, and the presidential campaign opened with an enthusi- 
asm on the part of the new party, and firmness on the part of 
the old, never before witnessed. 

The results of the Republican victory which followed are sub- 
lime beyond, description, and sad 1 e} T ond measure, and will never 
be forgotten in the history of the world. 

A careful study of them, while it reveals the frailties of over- 
reaching ambition on the part of those who raised their arm 



Convention of I860. 575 

against the government, also reveals the unwelcome truth that 
posterity's teeth will be set on edge bj the public debt, incurred 
in the inevitable war which followed. Mr. Lincoln's untar- 
nished record in it has turned .all his political enemies into 
) friends of his measures and his memory, and convinced the world 
I that greatness is less the result of notoriety than natural good 
sense. The creatures of vain ambition stood appalled before his 
unpretentious power, that with a simple helm overturned the 
work of the forum, and demolished whatever stood in the way of 
the sense of the nation, of which he was the faithful representa- 
tive. 

His life and his death were an ever-living proof that justice is 
the only thing that can save a nation in times of peril, and his 
exemplary administration of public affairs has made it possible 
for historians to write his eulogy without being accused of parti- 
sanship. 

£To President of the United States should come short of this 
high standard of statesmanship which, if universally practiced, 
would be a safeguard against the disgraces of partisan strategy 
and the dangers of disunion, as well as the moody discontents of 
Socialism. Simple justice is all the people want, in default of 
which revolution, sooner or later, will bring it with fearful retri- 
bution. 

That Mr. Lincoln's administration was statesman-like and not 
partisan, is demonstrated by the fact that at his untimely death, 
one of the best representatives of the Southern Confederacy, 
Alexander H. Stephens, said: "That is the heaviest blow the 
South has yet received." 

Had his life been spared, it is fair to assume that the problem 
of reconstruction would have received a magnanimous solution 
more consistent with political economy than was possible with- 
out his counsels. He who knew how to improvise useful mater- 
ial to build up his own cause out of those opposed to him, might 
have turned the popular tide of the South after the war in favor 
of the Union by those modifying arts that melted away opposi- 
tion to the forms of law and order which he had reduced to 
simple elements. As an example of his easy way of overcoming 
opposition, the following circumstance, which has never before 
been made public, is here related. When Mr. Lincoln was in a 
quandary as to whom he should give the chief command of the 
union forces, he consulted an old friend on the important matter, 
and while conferring together, Mr. Lincoln proposed to give the 
chief command of the Union forces to Douglas, on the ground 
that his indomitable energy and superior capacity would insure 
success against the foe, and convert enemies in the north into 



57G Convention of I860. 

friends. This measure was opposed by the adviser of Mr. Lin- 
coln, on the ground that if successful, Mr. Douglas might use 
his prestige in a spirit of rivalry against the administration. 
This consideration had no weight with Mr. Lincoln, who still 
favored the promotion of Mr. Douglas to the position. 

Seeing he could not turn his purposes, his adviser admonished 
him of the fact, that inasmuch as Mr. Douglas was then dan- 
gerously sick at Chicago, it would be prudent to wait till he had 
recovered before appointing him to the position, lest in the event 
of his dea,th, the friends of Mr. Douglas would say that an empty 
honor had been conferred upon him, which it was certain, he 
never could live to enjoy. This consideration had its desired 
effect, and Mr. Lincoln concluded to let the appointment rest, to 
await the result of Mr. Douglas' sickness. Within two weeks 
from that time he died.* 

There may be some at this time who honestly deprecate the 
war, and aver that the national debt will entail more evils upon 
the white race that can be compensated by the liberation of the 
colored race; but even these do not censure Mr. Lincoln, or hold 
him responsible for any national griefs, for by his own record he 
is shown to have been willing to save the union, either with or 
without slavery, and his tardy issue of the emancipation procla- 
mation till it became a sine qua non, as to public confidence in 
the ability of the North to conquer the rebellion, sufficiently de- 
monstrated his broad national conservatism, as well as his fidelity 
to the union. Such a happy combination of all the statesman- 
like qualities so necessary to guide the ship of State through the 
tangled mazes of our Civil War, could not have grown into being 
under New England culture; not but what she had men superior 
to Mr Lincoln in any one gift, but in vain may we look there for 
those matchless virtues which Western pioneer training, Western 
broad-gauge statesmanship, and universal good fellowship, has 
added to their already munificent inheritances from the East, and 
for which an everlasting debt of obligation is due her. 

The West is the child of the East, and as the parent in the ma- 
turity of age takes pride in the transcendent genius of a son, 
so the East beholds the zenith of imperial power graduating west- 
ward as new fields for national grandeur are unfolded in that di- 
rection, quickening into activity generous purposes, in propor- 
tion to her accumulating resources. 

*The authority for this is a statesman now living, whose advanced years are 
his apology for not allowing- his name to appear, lest it might subject him to 
inquisitive interviewing. He says, however, that if necessary to sustain the 
veracity of the writer, he will waive the objections and give his name to the 
public as voucher for the statement. 



Convention of I860. 577 

Mr. Lincoln was the incarnate type and model of the combined 
virtues of the Western citizen ; and where on the face of the great 
world of progress can his equal be found, in his full rounded up 
character, deficient in nothing which could bring strength to the 
nation by securing the services of the working bees, and not the 
drones, in its great hive. 

Both of the Napoleons have made their mistakes, plain to be 
seen by all, for which they have paid the penalty. Cromwell's 
rule with all its grandeur, if blended with Lincoln's charity, 
would have secured the full endorsement of the Massachusetts 
colony (which it never received), and would have warded off the 
recoil, which, at his death, replaced the old dynasty. Bismarck, 
for want of Lincoln 7 s charity, has of late entangled Germany in 
a threatening religious issue, besides having challenged a hostile 
antagonism in France, that costs the nation millions annually to 
defend themselves against. 

The policy by which even wise England conquered JSTapoleon 
at the expense of their national debt, has long since been ac- 
knowledged by her best statesmen to have been a mistake,* and 
it is not too much to say, would never have had place, if the con- 
servatism of Abraham Lincoln had prevailed in the English par- 
liament at the time. By comparing notes with the world, while 
we as frontierers can make but a pitiful show in science or art,, 
yet in that kind of natural good sense which our conditions have 
introduced into political economy, we have claims worthy of 
consideration; and it is not too much to say that the genius of 
Lincoln, as the representative of them, has crowned the West 
with imperishable laurels. It has also proven the elastic tenacity 
of the West, a bond essential to the preservation of the Union in 
times of peril, and Chicago to be the pivot on which the hinge 
turns. Under this responsibility the city of the lakes rests in 
her majesty of strength, not to be challenged, but to be utilized 

*As a proof of this the following extract from a letter from Rt. Hon. John 
Bright, member of parliament from Birmingham, to the author, is quoted. It 
is dated One Ash, Rochdale, April 8th, 1880": 

" As to the wisdom of Parliament at the end of the last and the beginning of 
the present century, I suspect there was no such thing as wisdom in those times 
in the British Parliament, or in the councils of the King. And now the time is 
pas% and little good can come from the discussion of the good or bad of -what 
Parliament then did. ' ' 

The author agrees with the distinguished British statesman that no good can 
come from discussing the above question. But an allusion is here made to it by 
way of comparing notes between the policy of England and America, in the con- 
tracting of their respective national debts, and the author takes this occasion to 
thank his honorable correspondent for the frank expression of his opinion as 
above, though it censures the past policy of his government. Not every Amer- 
ican statesmen would be equally ingenuous. 

37 



578 Convention of I860. 

in the great fraternity of States, to which Chicago extends her 
right hand in that broad-gauge spirit of good fellowship, for which 
she has a high reputation. 

Reckless partisan leaders have no hand in this fellowship. 
The general interests of the country are the last things they care 
tor, for they live on the offal of venality, and in proportion as 
political vices accumulate, their services are in demand to carry 
them, like mill-stones about their necks, till corruption has 
reached the limit which the good sense of the nation will bear. 
Then comes the recoil. New men and new measures are brought 
to the front in the more forcible but less noisy strength of jus- 
tice. Strong vices stimulate into life equally strong virtues, to 
repair spoliation, and in no place in the country can these vir- 
tues find an equally available field for action, as in the great 
center whose relations and associations are divided and shared 
from every direction, and whose charities are broadened into a 
national conservatism too flexible to be severed, and too tenacious 
to be conquered. Such is the proud position of the great North- 
west in 1881. And let it never be forgotten, that she is the cradle 
of the new National Policy, which every American citizen now 
endorses, and that this policy was the fruitage of the broad fields 
for agriculture that nature so invitingly spread for free labour in 
the West, out-rivaling the time-serving policy of slave labour, and 
changing petty partisan disputes in our national councils into 
grander issues, more worthy the minds of American citizens. 

Twenty years have passed since the assembling of this conven- 
tion, and more material for history has grown up with them, than 
during the seventy-seven years preceding it, which would date 
back to the peace of Paris, succeeding the Revolution. 

With truth, it may be said, that the issues that divided the 
country into two nearly equal parts before this convention, divide 
it no longer. What, at least, one political party then considered 
only a side-issue, every political party now looks upon as a national 
issue, involving vital principles of public policy, now settled on 
the only permanent basis which " manifest destiny" pointed out. 
Viewed as such, it becomes a legitimate theme for the historian, 
and if left out of history, the treatment of all or any other points 
on political history would be in vain. 

Next to the question of slavery, the question whether we are 
a solid nation, or a confederacy of states, whose integrity is sub- 
ject to the caprices of any single one, has been settled 



Convention of 186 4 at Chicago. 579 



CONVENTION OF 1864, AT CHICAGO. 

This was called at Chicago, on the 30th of August, by the 
Democrats to nominate a candidate for President of the United 
States, to run against Abraham Lincoln, who had already been 
nominated at Baltimore as the Republican candidate. The war 
was then at its height; the rebels had shown but small signs of 
weakness, and it cannot be denied, that there were even some 
prominent Republicans who looked to a compromise with them 
as a possible necessity to stop the war. But whether this was 
the case in the Republican ranks or not, many leading Democrats 
openly advocated such a measure, although the more prudential 
ones had not yet declared such a policy. But if they had not the 
Republicans believed they would adopt it, should they get the 
power into their hands. Here was a chasm between the two par- 
ties too wide to be bridged over, and too deep to see the bottom 
or ultimatum of. 

Had only moderate counsels prevailed in this convention, it 
certainly would have received better support, but unfortunately 
for the Democrats, they had an irrepressible constituency, igno- 
rant, audacious and indiscrete, that neutralized all public confi- 
dence in their more temperate councils from such men as Mc- 
Clellan and Seymour. From hotel balconies in the open air 
these gushing orators ventilated their maledictions against " Old 
Abe" in a storm of abuse, and with the airs and attitude of a 
maddened gladiator, clamored for peace at any price. As might 
be expected, such distempered zeal disgusted the better men of 
the party, whose honor they had tarnished, and produced a reac- 
tion that strengthened the hands of the Union men. 

These men may with propriety be called The Jacobins of the 
American War, and had they been sufficiently numerous to have 
carried out their purposes, the North would have fared better 
under the protection of Robert E.Lee and Alexander H. Stevens, 
than under their fiat. They have now sunk into deserved ob- 
scurity, to the credit of our country, be it said. 

On the second day after the calling of the convention it was 
fully organized, with Horatio Seymour as chairman; and on the 
third day, which was the 1st of September, General George B. 
McClellan was nominated as Democratic candidate for President, 
by an almost unanimous ballot. George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, 
was nominated as candidate for Vice-President the same day, 
when, after the usual platform and resolutions, which could not 
mean much under such an incongruous pressure, the convention 
adjourned. 



580 Convention of 1880 at Chicago. 



CONVENTION OF 1868, AT CHICAGO. 

During the last year of our war it was a foregone conclusion 
that it would make a President out of somebody, and it required 
no prophet's eye to tell who it was to be after General Kobert 
E. Lee had surrendered to General Grant. 

" Now I dost play the toutch 
To see if thou are current gold indeed." 

Kichard III said this to Buckingham, and in like manner " the 
toutch " was played to General Grant, to see if he would accept 
the Republican nomination as candidate for President of the 
United States.* He consented. This was all the Republicans 
could ask, and every body seemed pleased, except the Democrats, 
whose hopes of making him their victorious political standard 
bearer, were dashed to the ground. 

The Republican National Convention, in the " plentitude of 
their power, " assembled at Chicago, May 20th, 1868, for the pur- 
pose of nominating their candidate, for President. The track 
was clear; senators, soldiers and statesmen bowed obsequiously, 
and stepped aside, as General Grant stepped into the open arena, 
and received the votes of the entire delegation as candidate for 
president. Schuyler Colfax was nominated for vice president, 
and the convention adjourned with great unanimity. 



CONVENTION OF 1880, AT CHICAGO. 

The Republican party was now twenty-four years old, dating 
its birth from the convention of 1856, at Philadelphia, that nom- 
inated Fremont as its standard-bearer. 

Not an issue that had brought the party into existence, or that 
was a vital one in 1856-60 or '64, was now before this conven- 
tion. All had been swept away by the war, and by the settle- 
ment of the questions it had raised. Neither was there any 
issue as to tariff, banking or financial policy, between the Republi- 
cans and Democrats, the Greenback party, being the only oppo- 
sers to the financial policy endorsed by both, and yet the old 
lines which had ever existed between these two parties, had not 
been obliterated by time, for there yet exists a subtle underly ing 
distinction between them, which could better be described in 

*Before the war Mr. Grant was a Democrat. 



Convention of 1880 at Chicago. 581 

drama, poetry or fiction than by positive statements from a tan- 
gible basis. " Shall I ride this horse to buy or to sell?" asks the 
young equestrian (aside) of the proprietor, as the steed is led from 
the stable for exhibition. So it is in partisan political practice. 
Friendly or unfriendly legislation, under some plastic shield, may 
give direction to administrative policy; sometimes with predju- 
dicial effect upon the country, the best remedy for which may be 
found in the universal study of politicial economy, instead of 
partisan politics, in order that the fountain from which legisla- 
tors draw their authority may be not less intelligent than it cer- 
tainly is patriotic. 

If the ends to which the people aim could always be fulfilled, 
the Government of the United States would present a model be- 
fore the world that would make the expression, " The best Gov- 
ernment on earth," when applied to ours, no empty name. 

In no other country in the world is the voice of the people so 
transcendent as in the United States, as has been abundantly 
verified when the dernier resort comes on great issues, and the 
sheet anchor is thrown into the great sea of public opinion. Then 
partisan politics are below par, and principles rise in grand pro- 
portions, as was the case in 1860 and '64; and here it may be meet 
to say that the question before the people then was not a parti- 
san but a National one. 

Thus far in the history of our country, secret plans, not based 
on an open investigation before the people have come to naught. 
There is an unwritten law here, that human greatness is a spon- 
taneous growth, like the wild fiowers of the prairie and forest, 
exquisite in form, and beautiful in their variegated harmony as 
they adorn the landscape with more grace than the cultivated 
garden, precise with rows, squares and curves. 

Our greatest heroes and noblest patriots were not trained to the 
forum, but were schooled in that discipline that taught them by 
experience the real wants of the people, and there is an unwritten 
law among the people that pretension sometimes more than keeps 
pace with merit. 

As the time drew near for the assembling of the Convention 
of 1880, the Republicans found themselves divided in opinion as 
to the policy or impolicy of nominating General Grant as their 
candidate for President of the United States a third time. The 
opposers to this policy were called Anti-third Termers, but their 
objections to General Grant were not confined to the "impolicy" 
of the third term. They averred that, whatever might be his 
accomplishments as a soldier, he was deficient in wisdom as a 
statesman, and was liable to become the instrument of an unscru- 
pulous oligarchy, intent on a centralization of wealth and poiit- 



582 Convention of 1880 at Chicago. 

ical power, inconsistent with the welfare of the country. They 
also charged the Grant adherents with sinister motives, on the 
ground that more of them held lucrative positions under the 
Government than of themselves (his opposers), and as a conse- 
quence their zeal was due more to private interest than to patri- 
otism. 

On the other hand, the Grant men called the Anti's Quasi 
Republicans, who had not the ring of the true metal; possibly 
" sore heads," captious and erratic, unfaithful to partisan bonds, 
and invited all true men of the party to rally around their own 
standard. They also charged them with insincerity and dogma- 
tism in objecting to a third term. 

The convention met on the 2nd of June, and after much dis- 
cussion as to credentials of delegates and other parliamentary 
tactics, proceeded to business. It was composed of 768 delegates; 
389 were necessary to a choice. On the fifth day the balloting 
began, and the first cast showed a Grant strengt-h of 304:. Mr. 
Blaine, the next strongest candidate, had 284 supporters. Sev- 
eral other candidates were represented by the remainder of the 
delegates. The balloting continued in this way with no appar- 
ent signs of yielding on either hand till the 8th of June, when 
the immense audience in the convention were suddenly surprised 
by a union of the anti-Grant forces in favor of James A. Gar- 
field, of Ohio, who was chosen on the thirty-sixth ballot, by 399 
votes; immediately after which the Grant men, who up to that 
time had stood by their candidate with tenacious fidelity, joined 
with their opponents and made the vote unanimous. 

Chester A. Arthur was chosen as candidate for vice president, 
and the convention adjourned. 



The Chicago Academy of Sciences. 583 



THE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES-HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

BY E. B. M'CAGG. 

In the early part of 1857, a society for the promotion of 
science, was formed in Chicago, taking the name of " The Chi- 
cago Academy of Sciences." 

About $1500 was subscribed, a room was taken in the Saloon 
Building, corner of Clark and Lake streets, a few cases were made, 
and a museum was begun. The financial crisis of that year left 
but few of these subscriptions collectible, and the society unable 
to pay a curator, to build new cases, or to publish transactions. 
A few of the members worked at leisure hours upon the cabinet, 
and held monthly meetings. 

In 1859, this society was incorporated under the provisions of 
a general law, by the name of "The Chicago Academy of Sci- 
ences." 

In 1862, Mr. Robert Kennicott, always one of its most active 
members, and a large contributor to its collections, returned 
from a three years' exploration of Arctic America, richly laden 
with specimens in all departments of Natural History. The 
actual expenses of this expedition were paid by the Smithsonian 
Istitution, aided by various persons, and were materially lessened 
by the unprecedented liberality of the Hudson's Bay Company 
and its officers. The collections went to the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, with the understanding that any society which Mr. Kenn- 
icott might name, and which would suitably provide or their re- 
ception and care, should have a full series of the specimens. Mr. 
Kennicott desired that this series should find a home in Chicago. 

In the winter of 1863-4, led by the great value of the collec- 
tions thus made, and by the readiness of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution to fulfill its agreement as to duplicates, several prominent 
citizens of Chicago resolved to found here a Scientific Museum. 
An informal meeting of a few gentlemen was held, which Prof. 
Agassiz attended. His testimony as to the value of Mr. Kenni- 
cott's labors confirmed the determination of those present that 
funds should be provided for the proper reception of the material 
at their hands. A considerable sum of money was subscribed at 
this meeting, and by the efforts of a few individuals, additional 
subscriptions were made, a further act of incorporation was ob- 
tained and suitable rooms rented. 

The Trustees appointed Mr. Kennicott the first Director of 
the Museum. The specimens which were rapidly forwarded by 



584 The Chicago Academy of Sciences. 

the Smithsonian Institution were arranged under his direction 
in rooms in the Metropolitan Building, corner of Randolph and 
La Salle streets. Constant additions were made by members of 
the Academy, by friends in the vicinity, and by exchanges from 
American and foreign societies. 

In March, 1865, Mr. Kennicott, with a party of young natural- 
ists, went to Alaska to survey a route for a telegraph line then 
proposed to connect .North America with Russia. The expedi- 
tion was sent by the Western Union Telegraph Company, which 
generously offered every facility for doing scientific work outside 
the line of its special object. The outfit for scientific purposes 
was furnished by the Trustees from the funds of the Academy. 
From this expedition, auspiciously begun and for a time suc- 
cessfully conducted, Mr. Kennicott never returned. He died 
suddenly on the banks of the Yukon River, in the depths of that 
remote and desolate region. Notwithstanding his loss, the 
Academy reaped substantial results from this enterprise. 

After the departure of Mr. Kennicott, the museum was en- 
trusted to Dr. "William Stimpson, the Secretary of the Academy. 
Dr. Stimpson had been for many years in charge of the Inverte- 
brate department of the Smithsonian Institution. He had a 
large collection of invertebrates, and had acquired such pro- 
ficiency in this branch of natural history, as to become a 
recognized authority in the United States. A full series of his 
collections was deposited by the Smithsonian Institution with 
the Academy. At the death of Mr. Kennicott, Dr. Stimpson be- 
came the Director of the Museum. 

June 7, 1866, the building in which the collection was placed, 
was partially destroyed by fire, and the collection itself was in 
part damaged and in part destroyed. Before this fire, the ques- 
tion of a change of location had been seriously discussed, and im- 
mediately thereafter action was taken which resulted in the pur- 
chase of a lot on Wabash avenue, north of Yan Buren street, 
and the erection of a building upon its rear. 

The first meeting of the Academy in the new building was held 
on the 2Sth day of January, 1868. The house was of brick, 55. feet 
by 50 in area, and 50 feet high; the floors were of brick and iron, 
tiie stairways and principal doors of iron, and the windows were 
protected by iron shutters. The basement was used for labora- 
tory and storerooms; the first floor for library and offices, while 
the whole upper part, 28 feet high, a large room surrounded by 
two wide galleries, was occupied by the museum. All available 
space was rilled with cases of the most approved design. 

Having found a permanent home in its own well-built house, 
reasonably deemed fire-proof, the progress of the Academy under 



The Chicago Academy of Sciences. 585 

the skillful administration of Dr. Stimpson was rapid, and its 
success seemed assured. The choicest material steadily flowed to its 
care from exchange, from collection, and from the Smithsonian. 
Its supposed security made it a favorite place for the deposit of 
special collections, and for the same reason several private libra- 
ries, rich in special departments of science, found storage on its 
shelves, and added to the facilities it offered for prosecuting 
scientific investigation. 

On the 1st of October, 1871, beside a very large collection, 
too miscellaneous to be enumerated, there were in the museum 
the following special collections, each possessing some peculiar 
merit: 

The Audubon Club's collection of birds; the Walsh collection 
of insects; the Cooper collection of marine shells; the collections 
of two expensive and successful expeditions to the Florida coast; 
the Hughes collection of minerals; the \ collections of the 
Western Union Telegraph Company's expedition to Alaska; the 
Smithsonian collection of Crustacea, the finest in the world, oc- 
cupying over 10,000 glass jars, and containing many new types, 
described in unpublished MSS. ; the collecton of invertebrates of 
the North Pacific expedition, taken in Japanese waters by Dr. 
Stimpson; Mr. George Walker's collection of marine shells; and 
about 8,000 specimens taken from Maine to Texas ; a large collec- 
tion taken in the Gulf stream by Count Pourtales, and sent here 
for identification; and the Scammon Herbarium, in six large cases. 

On the 9th of October, 1871, this building, in spite of the fire- 
proof qualities it was confidently supposed to possess, with all its 
contents of inestimable value, specimens, library, manuscripts 
and apparatus, was destroyed by the fire that in a few hours de- 
voured the fairest and costliest portion of Chicago. Of all the 
wealth of natural science which the Academy had held, only 
a few unidentified potsherds remained. 

Within twelve days after the fire, a meeting was held and steps 
were taken towards the restoration of the Academy. A circular 
was issued inviting the sympathy and help of corresponding so- 
cieties, which elicited many immediate and liberal responses. 
Dr. Stimpson, already in feeble health and prostrated by the 
calamity, which had destroyed at once the voluminous manu- 
scripts of his life-w/ork, and the sources whence they had been 
drawn, went to Florida, hoping that a milder climate would ex- 
tend his waning lease of life. The hope was vain. He died on 
the 26th of May, 1872, at the home of his wife, inHchester, Md. 
His loss seemed to the friends of the Academy another stroke of 
a disaster which before had rendered them almost hopeless. 

The Trustees, unwilling to let perish with all its wealth of repu- 



586 The Chicago Academy of Sciences. 

tation, an institution which, at the time of the fire, was so pros- 
perous, determined to rebuild upon the old site, making such 
changes in the original plan as experience suggested. Upon the 
front of the lot ( the Academy building being on the rear), a 
business block was erected which, it was hoped would, besides 
paying the interest on the money borrowed to make these im- 
provements, yield a regular income for the support of the 
Academy. 

The new building was occupied in the fall of 1873, the first 
meeting being held October 14th of that year. The first floor is used 
for the necessary offices and a library room, which last also serves 
for the general meetings of the Society. This room is supplied 
with cases for books, and now contains, the property of the So- 
ciety, not far from 800 bound and 1200 unbound volumes, besides 
several hundred pamphlets, the unbound volumes being chiefly 
the transactions of other societies. 

The museum occupies the second and third floors; the upper 
being high enough for a gallery. The museum floor contains 
six large cases for mammals and birds, with an aggregate capacity 
of 1800 cubic feet; seven table cases, each containing 15 draw- 
ers, below a glazed top, with an aggregate of about 1500 square 
feet, and wall cases with about 250 feet of shelving. The tops 
of the cases, and the floor furnish places for the display of large 
specimens. 

The Academy has now on exhibition specimens roughly enu- 
merated, as follows : 

Birds mounted, nests, eggs and skins 3,800 

Mammals, reptiles and fishes, mounted 300 

Insects 6,000 

Shells 8,000 

Minerals and Fossils 6,000 

Miscellaneous 1,200 

Aggregate specimens 25,300 

Besides this, it has in store more than half as many more, 
which cannot be shown for the want of suitable cases and glass- 
ware, and a collection of casts, a reproduction of extinct animals, 
worth, at least, $2,500. 

Large collections of great value are known to exist, which 
would naturally gravitate to it, if its perpetuity was reasonably 
assured, and it ready to receive and care for them. 

The general depression which followed the panic of 1873, and 
continued for so many years, so lessened the receipts of the Acad- 
emy from rent as to leave it unable to pay full interest on its 
mortgage debt, and withdrew from it the liberal aid which it had 



The Chicago Academy of Sciences. 587 

theretofore received from its Chicago friends, and the mortgagee, 
unwilling to wait longer, has lately instituted proceedings to fore- 
close. The trustees, who have for years maintained it almost 
wholly at their individual cost, are unable to bear the increased 
burthen thus imposed on them, and will have to appeal to the 
liberality of the citizens of Chicago not to let it go down. They 
have been in the closest degree careful and economical in its 
management, giving it time, care and money — the last with no 
stinted hand — and it has a grand future before it in the rapidly 
increasing value of its property and its good standing with all 
kinds of societies, if it can be relieved from its present difficul- 
ties. Funds are needed to free it from debt, to pay salaries and 
wages, to furnish cases and glassware, and to resume the publica- 
tion of its transactions, that the Academy may retake its place 
among learned societies, and pay its debts for exchanges. 

It appeals to a generous public to continue the sympathy with 
its undertakings which it has alw T ays enjoyed, and which it con- 
fidently believes it has done nothing to forfeit, and for material 
aid to relieve it from its present embarrassments, save its prop- 
erty and ensure its future. 



FIRST RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPER 

The first religious newspaper issued in the North-West was 
published at Chicago by Walker & Worrel, A. D. 1840, Eev. J. 
B. Walker acting as editor, and B. F. Worrel, publisher. Mr. 
Walker published at the same time a paper for the Western 
Baptists, edited by the Kev. Mr. Stone. These papers circulated 
in the religious families scattered over the prairies, and were the 
first religious publications in the New West. 



588 Grammar of Names. 



GRAMMAR OF AMERICAN NAMES. 

When we look over the map of Asia, except in Asia Minor, 
the cradle of Christianity, we see few names of which the ordi- 
nary English scholar knows their derivation or their history, but 
on the map of Europe, especially in England, the case is differ- 
ent; for here grew up a civilization directly inherited from 
Grecian, Roman, E"orman, Saxon, Magyar and Celtic sources, 
and its proper names have their origin from history and biogra- 
phy, familiar to all who are well read in onr popular literature. 
Hence ihe eye rests with far more interest on the map of Europe 
than that of Asia, and the memory is less tasked to retain names 
on the former than the latter. 

Turning from both of these to the Map of America, the mind of 
the American scholar is delighted with the sight of household 
nomenclature, comparatively speaking, as the versatile sources 
from which our geographical names have been drawn comprise 
the most familiar names of Grecian and Roman antiquity, as 
well as from ancient Britian, medieval and modern English 
sources; to which may be added names to perpetuate the mem- 
ory of the Fathers of our Republic, and battle-fields of American 
pride. Besides all these, our numerous names of Indian origin, 
rich in native beauty, the chief value of which grows out of the 
fact that they give us a key to meanings attached to free and easy 
vocal utterances, or, in other words, to natural language. School- 
craft, as well as others who have studied Indian language, state 
that it admits of a perfect grammatical analysis, and that it ex- 
presses social conditions and affections with much impressment, 
free from hyperbole or affectation. Of course it is destined soon 
to become extinct, but while this is true, let. us cherish what re- 
mains of it in its application to our geography, and our history 
especially, as it has imparted to it a touch of vocal harmony not 
found in the grammatical geography of any other country, and 
it is not too much to say that in no part of America have so 
many Indian names been retained as in the North West; and, to 
make the most of these valuable relics, the following article from 
Mr. Haines, who has given this subject considerable attention, 
has been solicited: 



Indian Names, 589 



INDIAN NAMES. 

BY E. M. HAIXES. 

Whilst the red race of ]^~orth America are fast disappearing 
before the march of civilization, they have left to ns a perpetual 
reminder of their former presence in the land through the multi- 
tude of local names applied to rivers, lakes, towns, counties, 
states, and localities of various descriptions, the origin aud 
meaning of which is becoming a subject of interesting inquiry. 

In preparing an article on this subject, at the request of Mr. 
Blanchard, for his work concerning the discovery and conquests 
of the Xorthwest, I can only regret that other engagements have 
prevented me from pursuing the subject to that extent and as 
fully as its importance would seem to demand. I came to Chi- 
cago in early youth, while the country about was still in posses- 
sion of the native inhabitants. The Indian language was heard 
in every direction, and was indeed the prevailing language. The 
principal trade was with the Indians, in conducting which their 
lano-ua^e was the medium of communication. This afforded me 
an opportunity of satisfying a boyish curiosity of learning some- 
thing of this language as spoken by the Pottawattomies, then 
the prevailing tribe in the vicinity, which in after life led to a 
more full investigation into the various Indian languages of the 
country. 

The popular idea is that these Indian names, or those which 
are taken to be such, are genuine names and possess some oppro- 
priate signification; but whoever will take the trouble to investi- 
gate in this regard, will find much in this notion that is erroneous. 
This not being a written language, there is wanting a permanent 
standard of pronunciation ; hence, in transferring Indian names 
into our literature they have been liable to undergo material 
changes in their sounds, so much so in a large proportion of in- 
stances, that the original intention can scarcely be determined 
with any degree of certainty. As an example in this respect, an 
instance is afforded, among others, concerning the name of a 
locality on the southern border of Lake Superior, where a point 
of land extends into the lake for a distance beyond which the 
water is shoal, which the Indians call Sha-ga-icaum-ic-ojig from 
Sha-ga-waiwi-ic, a shoal point in the water. This word, passing 
through the French into our language, became Chequcrmegon, 
and the place is so called at this clay, which is not an Indian 
word, and has no element whatever of an Indian word, except as 



590 Indian Names. 

to the syllable che, which is a familiar prefix in the Algonquin 
language. 

In like manner, as before remarked, a large proportion of our 
so-called Indian geographical names, have undergone such 
changes that they can scarcely be recognized as Indian words 
in their present form. In this connection, before proceeding 
further, it is proper to state that it is not intended in this brief 
article to pursue a general enquiry as to Indian names extending 
over the continent, but the field will be limited to our more im- 
mediate vicinity in the North- West. 

In pursuing this subject intelligently, it is proper first to class- 
ify the various groups of native inhabitants as nearly as may be, 
so far as they are marked by a common or generic language. 
These were the Algonquin, Iroquois, Appalachian, Dakota and 
Shoshonee. Each of these were divided into tribes or families, 
speaking different dialects of the common language, by which 
the main group was distinguished. In this division of tribes they 
resembled the ancient Jews. 

The Algonqidns inhabited the country extending from Nova 
Scotia south to the James Elver, thence west to the mouth of the 
Ohio, and from thence northward to Hud sons Bay, excepting that 
portion on the south and east of Lake Ontario, since comprised 
within the State of New York, which was occupied by the Iro- 
quois. 

The Appalachians occupied that portion of the country 
south of the Algonquins, and east of the Mississippi. The 
Dakotas, called by the French Sioux, occupied a district of coun- 
try west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri and Platte 
Rivers. The country south and west of them was occupied by 
the Shoshonees. 

Thus, in tracing the origin or in arriving at the meaning of In- 
dian names, we have first to determine from which language of 
the several groups they are derived, and through what particular 
dialect they are produced. 

Among the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains, the Algon- 
quin language as spoken by the Ojibway nation, was regarded 
as the court language, so that when a person fell among a strange 
tribe, whose language he did not understand, if he- spoke this lan- 
guage, they were bound as a general rule, to furnish some one who 
who could communicate with him in that language. It was 
through this language, that Marquette spoke with all the tribes, 
on his route from Montreal to the Des Moines, and so it was with 
all these early French travellers, including LaHontan, who pro- 
ceeded, as we may believe from his narrative, far up the Platte 
river. Thus the language of the Algonquins became in one sense 
the universal language of the continent; whereby it happens 



Indian Names. 591 

that a large proportion of our Indian geographical names are de- 
rived from that source. Hence it may be proper to give in this 
connection some general suggestions in regard to this language. 

According to the Ojibway standard only seventeen letters are 
required to write correctly and plainly all the words in this ex- 
pressive language. These letters are divided into vowels and 
consonants. There are only four vowels, a, e, % o. This language 
has properly no u. There are thirteen consonants, namely : b, 
c, d, g, h, j, k, m, n, p, s, t, w. The following consonants, f, 1, 
q, r, v, x, z, never occur in the words of this language. So any 
word stated to be an Indian word, if it comprises any of the last 
mentioned letters, it can be set down for certain that it is not an 
Algonqidn word, and the chances are that it is not a genuine 
Indian word, but a corruption of an Indian word. The French, 
as a general thing, in writing and speaking this language, sub- 
stituted the letter I for that of n, as in the word Milwauhie, 
which should properly heMinioaufcie. It is stated, however, that 
four tribes of the Algonquin group — the Lenni Lenapes, or 
Delawares, the Sacs, Foxes' and Shawnees — had in their dialect 
the sound of I. 

In constructing words in this language, it is required that a 
consonant should precede or follow a vowel, except in dissyllables 
wherein two consonants are sounded in juxtaposition, as in muk- 
kuK a box, and as-sin, a stone; the utterances in these cases being 
confluent. But in longer compounds this juxtaposition is gener- 
ally avoided by throwing in a vowel, for the sake of euphony, as 
in the term Assinedwoin, the e in which is a mere connective, 
and has no meaning by itself. Nor is it allowable, in general, 
for vowels to follow each other in syllabication. The plural of 
animate names is marked by adding the letter g. Thus, manito, 
a spirit; plural, manitog. The plural of inanimate names is 
marked by the letter n added; thus, abwi, a paddle; plural, abwin. 
This termination, however, is varied by vowels preceding the fi- 
nal letter forming the plural, according to circumstances. 

In pursuing Indian geographical names, it is noticeable that 
in general the names are derived from the language of the tribes 
who inhabited that part of the country where such names are 
found. In many instances, however, these names have been car- 
ried by emigrants from their appropriate locality to other parts 
of the country. But as a general rule such names serve to 
mark the former locality of Indian tribes speaking the language 
from which they are derived; as in the State of New York, which 
abounds in Indian names, and reminds us that here once lived 
the Iroquois nation. 

Not only are the people, who have succeeded the native tribes, 
in complete ignorance of the origin and meaning of the names 



592 Indian Names. 

they have left us to designate, rivers, towns, and localities, but 
they are unaware of the fact that very many names we are now 
using, which we suppose to come from other sources, are also, 
Indian names, or derived therefrom. Of the thirty-eight States 
of the Union, eighteen have Indian names, as follows : Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, 
Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Mis- 
sissippi, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, which in 
general, are derived from great rivers or other waters. 

In pursuing this subject, there is one thing with which we 
have to deal wherein at this time we can obtain no satisfactory 
aid in case of doubt or uncertainty. We frequently find Indian 
words where the same sounds occur, from two or more different 
languages or dialects, with entirely different meanings; so, what 
may have been the original intention in giving the name, or 
from which language or dialect the word is derived, cannot be 
stated. In such cases, conjecture only can be given. The word 
Chicago, or that which is essentially the same, is found in several 
different languages, with entirely different meanings. 

In the following list of Indian names, we will, for convenience, 
use abbreviations to some extent, thus: Alg., for Algonquin, 
Irq., for Iroquois, Apt., for Appalachian, Dak., for Dakota. 

Arkansaw — A town in Wisconsin; given by the French as 
Arkansas; applied to a tribe of Indians in the vicinity of a river 
of that name flowing into the Mississippi from the west. Hen- 
nepin speaks of these Indians as the Kansas, the signification 
of which is not given. It is said that they made a superior kind 
of bows for shooting, the material being of a peculiar kind of 
wood growing in that country, hence they were called "Arc- 
kansas," pronounced Arkansaw. By some, called " the bow In- 
dians." 

Ashkum — Alg. — A town in Illinois; more and more. Thus 
Ashkum-ahkoose, he is getting worse (more sick.) Ashkum 
Wabishkah, it is getting whiter. 

Ahnapee — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin, when, when is it. 

Allamakee (An-a-ma-kee) — Ag. — A county in Iowa. Thun- 
der. 

Algonquin. — A town in Illinois. The name of one of the 
principal groups of ISTorth American Indians, given to them by 
the French. Its meaning is in some doubt. It is derived from 
the Algonquin language, and is said to mean, people of the 
other side, or opposite shore. 

Algonac. — A town in Michigan. Pertaining to Algonquin. 
Place of the Algonquins. 

Anoka — Alg. — A town in Minnesota. Re works, or "a busy 
place." 



Indian Names. 593 

Anamosa. — Alg. — A town in Iowa. You walk from me, 
or, perhaps, from An-a-mosh, "a dog." 

Appanoose — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Name of an Indian 
chief of the Fox tribe. The grandchild. 

Cayuga (Gwe-u-gweh) — Irq. — A town in Illinois, Mucky - 
land; from a tribe of Indians in ISTew York of the Iroquois nation; 
they were called Gioe-u-giveh-o-no, "People of the Mucky land." 

Chebaxse — Alg. — A town in Illinois; Little Duck, from an 
Indian chief of that name. 

Chemung — Irq. — A town in Illinois; from a river of that 
name in New York, signifying hig horn, so named by the Indians 
from finding in the bed of the river a fossil elephant's tusk. 

Chicago — Alg. — A city in Illinois; said to derive its name 
from the river of that name. Some insist that it comes from 
she-kagh, or she-gagh — " skunk.' 2 The word Choe-ca-go occurs 
in the Pottawattamie dialect, which signifies " destitute." There 
is nothing in the history or tradition of this word which would 
lead to the conclusion that it was derived from the word she- 
kagh, except the mere coincidence of sounds. The word, or 
that which is essentially the same, first occurs in Hennepin's- 
account of Fort Creve Coeur, built by LaSalle, January, 1680, 
on the Illinois river, near where Peoria now stands. He says. 
this fort was called by the savages Chicagou, but does not give 
the meaning of the word. This reference thereto, occurs in. the 
heading to that chapter of his book giving an account of the- 
building of this fort, the words of which are as follows: "An 
account of the building of a new fort on the river of the Illinois, 
named by the savages Checagou, and by us Fort Crevecoer." Four 
years later the name appears on a French map, applied to- a river 
represented as putting into the river Desplein from the east, 
near Mount Joliet. A few years later LaHonton designates the 
portage between the Illinois river and the great lake as the portage 
of Chikakou. Charlevoix, in 1720, refers to the point on the great 
lake at which the portage to the Illinois river commences as 
Chicagou. There are several words in the various dialects of the 
Algonquin group to which the origin of this word may be 
assigned with equal propriety as that of she-kahg. Certain it 
is, that there is no light afforded us in history by which we can 
determine the original intention as to the meaning of this word.* 

Esc an aba — Alg. — Menominee dialect. — A town in Michigan. 
Flatrock. 

* In the early part of this work the writer gave the signification of this word 
according- to the meaning- which the Indians gave it in the later clay, and which 
has generally been accepted as good authority; but the investigations of Mr. 
Haines would go to show that a diversity of Indian meanings have been applied 
to it with so little affinity with each other, that one is lost in the attempt to 
settle on a consistent theory as to the true spirit of the term. — Author. 



594 Indian Names. 

Geneseo (Gcn-nis-he-yd) Irq. — A town in Illinois. Beautiful 
Valley. The name of a river in New York, so named by the 
Iriquois from the beautiful valley this river passes through. 

Illinois — From the Algonquin word mini, "man," and 
French adjective termination ois. The French substituted I for 
n. From tradition, it was intended to mean or have reference to 
a perfect man, as distinguished from the Iroquois nation, who 
were considered by the "Western tribes as beasts. Marquette, in 
descending the Mississippi, touched on the west bank of that 
river at a place near the mouth of the Des Moines, where he found 
marks of inhabitants, which he pursued westward a few miles, 
when he arrived at an Indian village, where he was received with 
demonstrations of great friendship. Fie communicated with the 
inhabitants, it would appear, in the Algonquin language, but as 
their dialect differed from that of any of the tribes he had before 
met with, he asked the chief who received him who they were. 
He answered in the Algonquin language, "We are men" as 
distinguished from the Iroquois, whom they looked upon as 
beasts in consequence of their cruel conduct in their invasions 
upon the Western tribes. Hence the term Inini, "man," or as 
the French rendered it, Illini. Thereafter the tribes of this 
vicinity became known among the French as lllinese or Illinois. 

Ishpeming — Alg. — A town in Michigan. High-above-Heaven. 

Kalamazoo — (Ne-gik-an-a-ma-zod) — Alg. — A river in Michi- 
gan. The contraction of an Indian phrase descriptive of the 
stones seen through the water in its bed, which from a refractive 
power in the current, resembled an otter swimming underwater. 

Kenosha — Alg. — A town in Yv 7 isconsin. A long fish — a 
pike. From Kenose — "long." 

Kewanee — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Prairie lien. 

Kewaskum — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Returning track. 

Kickapoo — Alg. — A town in Illinois. The name of one of 
the Algonquin tribes of the West, jestingly applied by others of 
the same stock. From Negik-abos — an otter's apparition — ghost 
of an otter. 

Kishwauke — Alg. — A river in Illinois. Place of sycamore 
trees. 

Kokomo — Alg. — A town in Indiana. — Wise, like an owl. 
From which it would seem that the Indians, like the ancient 
Greeks, esteemed the owl as an emblem or symbol of wisdom. 

Moccasin — Alg. — A town in Illinois. A shoe. 

Manitoba — [Man-i-to-bwa.) — Alg. — Name of a lake in the 
British Possessions of the Northwest. Spirit-voice. 

Manito — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Spirit. By the early 
French travelers, Manitou. 

Manitowoc — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Place of the 



Indian Names. 595 

Spirit By some, Man-i-to-auk — "A tree where spirits abide." 

Mascoutah — Alg. — A town in Illinois. From mascoda. 
"prairie." 

Mazo manie — Dale. — A town in Wisconsin. Walker on 
iron. Name of a Sioux chief. 

Menominee — Alg. — A river and town in Wisconsin. Eater 
of wild rice. From a tribe of Indians called Menomiuees, from 
their subsisting on w T ild rice.* 

Mequon, or Maquon — Alg. — A river in "Wisconsin. Feather 
or quill. 

Michigamme, or MicMgumme — Alg. — A town in Michigan. 
Great water. 

Michilemacinac — Alg. — An island in the straits between 
lakes Huron and Michigan. Great Turtle. 

Michigan — Alg. — The Great Lake. 

Minnehahah — (Minne-rara) — Dak. — Name of a noted water- 
fall in Minnesota. Laughing water; from Minne, "water" and 
ra ra, "laugh." This was the name originally given by the Da- 
kotahs to St. Anthonys Falls. Hennepin visited these Falls 
in 1680, and gave to them the present name of St. Anthony. In 
later years the name Minnehaha, intended for M in-ne-ra-ra, 
became applied to that small but interesting waterfall near Ft. 
Snelling. 

Milwaukee — {Min-ioau-kee). — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin, 
Good earth. — Good country. 

Minnetonka — Dak. — Name of a noted lake in Minnesota; 
a great pleasure resort. The word is Minne Tonga, or more 
properly spoken, Tonga Minne, signifying " a lake " or oody of 
water. 

Minnesota — Dak. — Name of a river and state. From Min- 
ne "water," and "sota," w r hich is understood to mean mixed or 
mottled, signifying the condition or appearance of the water of 
this river, when affected by the flood of the Mississippi; some 
say that sota, refers to the hazy or smoky appearance of the at- 
mosphere, over the valley of this river at some seasons of the year. 

Mississippi — Alg. — Name of a river and state. — Great River. 

Misha Moqtja — (Mish-a-m<uk-wa.)—Alg. — A town in Wis- 
consin — Great hear. From misha, " great," and mukwa, "a bear." 

Mokena — (Mok-e-?2«) — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Turtle. 

Moaweqtja — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Weeping woman/ 
she that weeps. 

Muscoda — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Prairie. 

* The marshy lands along Fox River and adjacent lakes, in the country of the 
Menominees, abounded in wild rice, and was their principal article of'subsis- 
tence; hence the appellation, Menominees, from me-no-min, "wild rice." 



596 Indian Na 



mes. 



Muskegon — (Muskeg -ong) Alg. — A town in Michigan. At the 
swamp. 

Muskego — Alg. — A town in "Wisconsin. Swamp. 

Musquaka — Alg. — Sac dialect. — A town in Iowa. Bed earth. 

Neoga— iV^. — A town in Illinois. Place of the Great Spirit. 

Neshotah — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Twin. 

Nokomis — Alg.— A town in Illinois. Grandmother. 

Nunda — Ira. — A town in Illinois. Hills. 

Ogema — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Chief— head man. 

Ohio (O-hee-o) — Irq. — Name of a river. Beautiful — how 
beautiful. 

Ontonagon — Alg. — A town on Lake Superior. From Non- 
tonagon, "My dish." 

Osage — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Miami dialect. The 
Neutral. The name of a tribe of Indians. 

Oscoda — Alg. — A town in Michigan. From Iscoda, "Fire." 

Oshkosh — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Brave. Name of a 
Menominee chief. 

Oquaka — Alg. — Sac dialect. — A town in Illinois. Yellow earth. 

Ossineke (Os-sin-e-ka) — Alg. — A town in Michigan. He that 
gathers or works in stones. 

Oswego {O-Sweh-go) — Irq. — A town in Illinois. Flowing 
out. This name was given by the Iroquois to the place at the 
mouth of the river, since called by that name, in the state of 
New York. 

Ottawa — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Trader. Name of a 
tribe of Indians whom the French designated as the traders. 

Ozaukee — Alg. — A county in Wisconsin. Yellow earth. 

Pembina — Alg. — A town in Minnesota. High hush cran- 
berries. The name of a river, being so named by the Indians from 
these bushes growing along its banks. 

Peotone (Pe-tone) — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Bring — bring 
here. 

Poweshiek — Alg. — A county in Iowa. From an Indian chief 
of the Fox tribe. The roused bear. 

Poygan — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Pipe. 

Sebewa — (Se-be-wan) — Alg. — A town in Michigan. Punning 
water. 

Shawano — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Southern. 

Somonauk {E s-sem-in-auk) — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Paw 
Paw tree. 

Tonica — Alg. — A town in Illinois. A place inhabited. 

Tuscola — Apl. — A town in Illinois. A level plain. 

Wabashaw — Dak. — A town in Minnesota. From an Indian 
chief of the Sioux nation. Redleaf or the leaf 



Indian Names. 597 

Wapella — Alg. — A town in Illinois. From an Indian chief of 
the Fox Tribe. He who is painted white. 

Wattsatt — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Far off. 

Waukesha ( Wau-koosh-ong) — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. 
At the Fox, on Fox River. This is another of those numer- 
ous instances of an attempt to adopt an Indian name, which 
lias not been successful. The word given in parenthesis is be- 
lieved to be the word intended. The place bearing this name was 
originally called Prairieville. As the town grew in importance, 
the inhabitants, foremost among whom was the late Gov. Ran- 
dall, desired to adopt some more appropriate name. It being 
situated on Fox river, they wished to adopt some Indian name, 
suggestive of its locality. This wouid.be properly expressed by 
the word Wau-koosh-ong, which would seem to be the word in- 
tended. But Waukesha would not be recognized by the Indians 
as an Indian word. 

Waukegan ( Wau-Jci-e-gan) — Alg. — A town in Illinois. A 
house, or fort. The place where this town is situated was originally 
called Little Fort. It seems to have been a French trading post 
of minor importance — probably established about the year 1720, 
or at some time in the early part of that century. The occasion 
of selecting this point as a post seems to have been two-fold. It 
was in the vicinity of excellent hunting and trapping grounds, 
especially the latter, and was found to be the nearest point of 
any for reaching the Desplaines river from Lake Michigan, 
where in a good stage of water a short, easy portage could be 
made on the route to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, saving 
about forty miles of lake coast, necessary in going by way of 
Chicago. It was continued as a French post until probably 
about 1760. After the English succeeded to the country the 
point became known as The Little Fort, and the town subse- 
quently built up here took that name. Judge Blodgett, now of 
the United States Court, becoming a resident of the place, and 
having a fancy for Indian names, suggested that the name of 
Little Fort be changed by substituting an Indian name signify- 
ing the same thing. The diminutive of nouns in the Algonquin 
language is formed by adding the syllable anse, so that Little 
Fort in that language would be Wau-hi-e-ganse; but for the pur- 
poses of euphony the name adopted was Waukegan, which would 
signify simply Fort or Rouse. Although the pronunciation is 
not precisely the same as the Indian word intended, but yet is 
nearer to that intended than the so called Indian names generally 
are. The Indians designated a fort or dwelling of the white man 
by the same name. The original dwellings of the whites among 
them were buildings for trading posts, built in a style for pro- 
tection, and were called forts by the French. 



598 Indian Names. 

Wattconda — Dak. — A town in Illinois. The Good Spirit. 

"Wanatah — Dak. — A town in Indiana. He that charges on 
his enemies. Name of an Indian chief. 

Waupun ( Wau-bun) — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. Early — 
frontier. 

Weyauwega — Alg. — A town in Wisconsin. This is one of 
the words passing for an Indian name, which in its present form 
is not an Indian word. The word, according to the late Gov. 
Doty, is Wey-au-we-ya, as given by him to the postoffice depart- 
ment at Washington when the postoffice at that place was estab- 
lished. The department mistook the y for g, rendering the 
name as it now is. The word intended is an Algonquin word, of 
the Menominee dialect, and signiiies whirling wind. It was the 
name of a faithful Menominee Indian guide long in the service 
of Gov. Doty, whose name he sought after his death to perpetu- 
ate through applying it to this town. 

Winetka — Alg. — A town in Illinois. A beautiful place. 

Winnebago ( Win-ne-be-gog) — Ag. — Name of a county in Illi- 
nois. Dirty waters. The name of a tribe of Indians found 
by the French at Green Bay, which they called Stinking,* Bay 
for some cause, whereby these Indians became known as Winne- 
bagogs, or people of the dirty waters 

Wisconsin. — Name of a river and state. Marquette calls this 
river the Mishkonsi?ig, which is supposed to have been intended 
as an Indian word, signifying strong current, a feature which 
marks this stream in high water. 

Wyanet. — Alg. — A town in Illinois. Beautiful. 

Yankton. — Dak. — A town in Dakota Territory. From 
Eyank-ton-wah, "People of the Sacred, or Spirit Lakes." 



First Thanksgiving Proclamation. 590 



FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION. 

To Eufus Blaxchaed, 

Wheaton, Ills. 

The first proclamation of any Thanksgiving day in this State 
was issued by Hon. Francis C. Sherman, as Mayor of Chicago, in 
1841, attested by Thomas Hoyne, as City Clerk. It is well 
known that an annual Thanksgiving day is ot'Xew England origin, 
and is, in peculiar respects, a New England institution. From 
the organization of our State Government, and the admission of 
the State into the Union, the Governors and principal officers of 
Illinois were of Southern extraction, and up to 1841, — much the 
largest portion of our population that had come into this State, 
was made up of families who had imigrated from the states 
south, bringing with them the customs, and so far as they could, 
introducing the institutions of their Fathers. 

Chicago in common with the northern portion of the State, 
was colonized by a majority of persons who emigrated from iSlew 
York, the Eastern and Middle States. In 1811 the Common Coun- 
cil of Chicago consisted of twelve (12) alderman and a mayor. 
Mr. Sherman, the Mayor, was from Connecticut, as was also Julius 
"Wadsworth, a member of the Board. The others were from 
Eastern States, and Thomas Floyne, the third City Clerk ever 
chosen, was serving his se-cond year in office, that officer being 
elected then annually. 

Alderman "Waclsworth suggested, that if he (Hoyne) would 
draft a resolution, and then draw a proclamation in due form, 
so that it should go out signed by the Mayor and Clerk as au- 
thoritative, fixing a special clay at the usual time in this city as 
a day for thanksgiving, requesting the churches to observe, and 
the people of the city to close their places of business; the peo- 
ple of this city could have a holiday, the turkey would be eaten, 
and our 4,000 people would be happy. 

All was carried out as proposed. It is not for the author of 
the proclamation to praise that instrument. But it was a docu- 
ment of tremendous sound and unusual length. 

The day appointed was kept, the churches were all opened, the 
ministers in their places, and the sermons were of the orthodox 
size and style. 

A copy of the proclamation was published in the two news- 
papers of that day, one of which, the Chicago Democrat, was 



600 Universalist Denomination in Chicago. 

in the hands of the writer up to the time of the great fire of 
1871. 

It will appear that in the early infancy of our city, we were 
easily led to adopt one of the most pious customs of the Pilgrim 
Fathers, while the example was adopted and has since been fol- 
lowed by the State. 

Thos. Hoyne. 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN SOCIETY. 

BY MRS. ANNIE E. W ALBERT. 

This society was incorporated under the laws of the State of 
Illinois, November 28, 1874. The object of the society is to 
provide a place for destitute women and girls believed to be 
worthy, where they can earn an honest and respectable living. 
For this purpose a Home is provided at ~No. 151 Lincoln avenue, 
where, when necessary, they can be cared for temporarily, and 
as soon as a suitable place can be found, they are sent to it. An 
employment bureau is connected with the business office of this 
association, 173 E. Randolph street. The institution is support- 
ed in part by the revenue derived from its Industrial Depart- 
ment, and in part from voluntary conti\'but ons. 

The Rev. Robert Colly er was one of its earliest active sup- 
porters, and until his removal to New York one of its Directors. 
In 1877 its Directors were : 

Rev. Robert Collyer, Hon. Leonard Swett, Hon. Thomas 
Hoyne, Hon. W. F. Coolbaugh, Gen. A. L. Chetlain, Rev. IT. 
W. Thomas, Robert Hervey, Hon. ¥m. Yocke. 

The affairs of the society are managed by the undersigned, 
acting as its officers and Directors : 

President — Mrs. Annie E. W albert; Yice President — Mrs. F. 
J. Bluthardt; Secretary — George S. Redfield; Treasurer — Lyman 
J. Gage. 

Directors — Hon. E. B. Washburne, Hon. Thomas Hoyne, 
Hon. Leonard Swett, Gen. A. L. Chetlain, Rev. H. W. Thomas, 
Geo. S. Redfield, Lyman J. Gage, N. K. Fairbanks, Lion. Win. 
Yocke. 



Universalist Denomination in Chicago. G01 



THE UNI VERS A LIST DENOMINATION IN CHICAGO. 

BY WILLIAM H. RYDER. 

The first organized effort for the establishment of a Universa" 
list parish in Chicago, was made in the winter of the years 1841-2- 
The meetings were held in City Saloon Building, southeast cor- 
ner of Lake and Clark streets. 

The congregations were small, but among the members were 
several persons who afterward became prominent as public spirited 
and leading citizens. Abram Gale, now residing at Galewood, at 
the ripe age of 84, was among the active and useful workers of 
that period. The first church edifice built by the society was lo- 
cated on Washington Street, next to the M. E. Church, and was 
dedicated in the winter of 1843-4, Rev. W. E. Manley preaching 
the sermon. Eev. Dr. Win. E. Manley was the first pastor. The 
building was constructed of wood, and still survives the changes 
which have been made in the city. After having been several 
times removed, it is now located on the southeast corner of 
Wabash Avenue and Sixteenth Street, and is creditably employed 
as a market. 

In 1856, having outgrown the wooden structure, the Society 
erected a remarkably attractive edifice on the corner of Wabash 
avenue and Yan Buren street; Rev. Samuel P. Skinner, whose 
memory is still precious in the affections of his many friends, 
was pastor of the congregation in its more primitive days, and 
to his zeal in the cause was largely due the success of the under- 
taking. This second church building was entirely destroyed 
in the Great Fire, and the present spacious and imposing edi- 
fice was built in 187^5, at a cost — including land, organ and 
furnishing — of $185,000. The present pastor, Rev. William 
II. Ryder, A. M., D. D., assumed the pastoral care of the so- 
ciety the first Sunday in January, 1S60. He has consequently 
held his present charge for nearly twenty-one years. During 
this long period this society, like every other in the city, has 
been greatly changed. But few of the original workers are now 
alive, or if alive, they are unable by the infirmities of years, to 
bear any considerable portion of the responsibility, which, in 
early lite, it was there joy to assume. 

The legal title of the parish is the First Universal ist Society of 
Chicago ; but the organization is generally known as St. Paul's 
Universalist Church. It is the recognized leading Universalist 



602 Universalist Denomination in Chicago. 

parish in the North- West. The congregation is large, and contains 
many leading citizens. The church membership is 410. The Sun- 
day School is under the efficient care of Jas. EL Swan; the Ladies' 
Aid Society, of Mrs. George C. Morton; the Industrial School in 
aid of colored girls, of Mrs. H. W. Wetherell, and the Young 
People's Association has the presidency of Frank E. Johnson. 

In the year 1858 some of the members of the First Society, 
residing in the "West Division, organized a new parish in that 
portion of the city, under the title of the Second Universalist So- 
ciety, generally known as the Church of the Redeemer. The 
church building is located at the corner of West Washington 
and Sangamon streets, and is a neat and commodious structure. 
The parish is large and prosperous. Rev. Dr. A. C. Barry was 
the first pastor. Rev. James IT. Tuttle came at the close of the 
year 1859, and during his pastorate the society was greatly 
strengthened. His successors were Rev. T. E. St. John,' Rev. 
Dr. G. T. Flanders, Rev. Dr. J. E. Forrester, and Rev. Dr. 
Sumner Ellis. Dr. Ellis has just closed a successful ministry of 
five years, and the parish is now seeking a pastor. 

The third church, known as the Murray Chapel, was formed — 
mostly from the membership of St. Paul's — in 18 . They 
erected a convenient edifice on Indiana avenue, near Twenty- 
ninth street, but the parish was so weakened by the Great Fire, 
losses by death, as to compel a discontinuance of the organization. 

The Universalists have a flourishing college in Galesburg known 
as Lombard University. They have also prosperous schools in 
Iowa and Wisconsin, a college at Akron, Ohio, one at Logans- 
port, Indiana, called Smithson College, and two colleges and two 
theological schools in the Eastern States. Measures are in pro- 
gress for the establishment of a theological school in connection 
with Lombard University. 

In addition to these leading facts in the history of the Univer- 
salist denomination in this city, much might be said of the use- 
ful work done by these churches in promoting the moral and re- 
ligious welfare of the city, and the Northwest. For, in some 
respects, their position has been peculiar. Assailed as they were, 
at the first, by a violent prejudice amounting almost to persecu- 
tion, it lias been, in an especial degree, the work of the Univer- 
salists to enforce the doctrine of religious toleration. Happily, 
the old time intolerance is now almost wholly unknown, and the 
differing sects find much to do and to enjoy in common. The 
Universalists are now fairly entrenched as one of the recognized 
religious organizations of the city, and perhaps no parish in the 
Northwest has done more effective service in defending Chris- 
tianity against the assaults of rationalism than St. Paul's of 
Chicago. 



Baptist Denomination in Chicago. 603 



THE BAPTIST DENOMINATION IN CHICAGO. 

THE CHURCHES. 

The Baptists were among the first to begin Christian work 
in Chicago. Indeed, when in the year 1833, Dr. John F. Temple, 
one of the earliest settlers at this point, wrote to Dr. Jonathan 
Going, Secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission So- 
ciety, for a missionary to be sent here, he said: " We have no ser- 
vant of the Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim the glad tidings of 
salvation." Dr. Going immediately began correspondence with 
a young man, Allen B. Freeman, who was about finishing bis 
course of study at the Hamilton Literary and Theological Insti- 
tution at Hamilton, .N". Y., and in August, 1833, Mr. Freeman, 
the first Baptist minister in Chicago, was upon the ground. His 
term of service, and of life, was, however, sadly brief. In De- 
cember, 1834, after only a little more than one year of faithful 
labor, having preached and administered the rite of baptism at 
Bristol, as he was returning homeward his horse gave ouc, and 
he was obliged to make most of the journey on foot, with much 
exposure to inclement weather. The consequence was a fever, 
of which he died, Dec. 15,1834. His last words were : "Tell 
my revered father that I die at my post, and in my Masters 
work." 

What is now the First Baptist Church had, in the meantime, 
been formed. It was organized with fifteen members, Oct. 19, 
1833, the first Baptist Church in the State north of Peoria. A 
place of worship had been prepared — an humble edifice, designed 
both as a school-house and for worship, and costing only nine 
hundred dollars. 

The history of the church, since the date of these beginnings, 
has been one of steady progress, with the exception of such 
breaks in the course of its prosperity as were caused by the dis- 
astrous fires of 1871 and 1871: ; which, by cutting off resources 
and necessitating change of location have interposed obstacles 
to growth, and temporarily crippled its power. In 1843 a larger 
house was built, under the pastorate of Kev. E. II. Hamlin. 
This was burned in 1852, but was immediately rebuilt in larger 
proportions and with much more of architectural finish, under 
the pastorate of Rev. J. C. Burroughs. In 1864, as will be re- 
lated elsewhere, the ground, at the corner of LaSalle and Wash- 
ington streets, where this house stood, was sold to the Chamber 
of Commerce, and the house presented to an organization on the 



604: Baptist Denomination in Chicago. 

West Side, which took the name of the Second Baptist Church. 
The First Church found a new location at the corner of Wabash 
avenue and Hubbard Court, and here a spacious and elegant 
house was built, Dr. W. W. Everts, the pastor, leading in the 
enterprise. The fire of 1874 destroyed the house, and the church 
then removed some three miles south, to the corner of Thirty- 
first street and South Park avenue. The house there erected, 
under the pastorate of Dr. Everts, surpasses in beauty and com- 
modiousness even the former one, and the church itself is rapid- 
ly recovering the ground lost through fire and the changes so 
made necessary. Its present membership (1880) is not far from 
one thousand. 

The successive pastors of the church have been Rev. A. B. 
Freeman, 1833-44; Bev. J. T. Hinton, 1835-42-; Rev. C. B. 
Smith, 1842-43; Bev. E. H. Hamlin, 1843-45; Bev. Miles San- 
ford, 1845-47; Bev. Elislia Tucker, D.D., 1848-51; Bev. J. C. 
Burroughs, D. D., 1852-56 ; Bev. W. G. Howard, D. D., 1856- 
59; Bev. W. W. Everts, D. D., 1859-79, and Bev. G. C. Lorimer, 

D. D., the present pastor. 

The field of the Second Baptist Church, in this city, in order 
of date, has been chiefly upon the west side of the river. This 
church was organized in 1842, being composed of persons who 
left the First Church, with that view, under the leadership of Bev. 
C. B. Smith. Its original place of worship was upon LaSalle 
street, near the First Church. This being burned, not long after, 
the church moved to the West Side, locating between Washing- 
ton and Madison streets, on Desplaines. Its successive pastors, 
up to the year 1864, were: Bev. C. B. Smith, Bev. H. M. Bice, 
Bev. Lewis Baymond, Bev. A. Kenyon, Bev. H. K. Greene, Bev. I. 

E. Kenney, and Bev. Nathaniel Colvern, D. D. The church, dur- 
ing this period of its history, enjoyed much prosperity; under the 
pastorate of Mr. Baymond alone, some two or three hundred 
being added to it. In the year 1864, the property of the First 
Church, at the corner of LaSalle and Washington streets, was 
sold, as mentioned above. The house, an excellent brick structure, 
was presented by the church to such of its members living on the 
West Side as should unite with the Tabernacle Church, at a loca- 
tion more favorable than the one occupied by that body, the re- 
sulting organization to be called the Second Baptist Church of 
Chicago. The house was accordingly taken down, removed and 
re-erected, at the corner of Morgan and Monroe streets. Bev. E. J. 
Goodspeed, of Janesville, Wis., was called to the pastorate, and a 
career of remarkable prosperity at once began. The church grew 
to be one of the largest, most enterprising and useful in the city. 
In the later years of his pastorate, Dr. Goodspeed's health be- 
coming infirm, and the care of so large a church being necessarily 



Baptist Denomination in Chicago. 605 

arduous, his brother, Eev. T. W. Goodspeed, was associated with 
him. Dr. Goodspeed's health continuing to tail, their joint pas- 
torate terminated in 1S73, and Eev. Galusha Anderson, D. D., 
pastor of the Strong Place Church, Brooklyn, accepted the call 
of the church as their successor. He was followed by Dr. John 
Peddie, of Philadelphia. Dr. Peddie, after a pastorate of less 
than two years, accepting a call to the First Baptist Church, 
New York City, Rev. W. M. Lawrence, of Philadelphia, "became 
his successor, and is now (1880) the pastor. 

The Edina Place Baptist Church (now Michigan Avenue), third 
in order of time, was organized in 1856 by members the First 
Church, dismissed for that purpose. A house of worship was built 
at the corner of Edina Place and Harrison street, Eev. Eobert 
Boyd, of Waukesha, Wis., being called as pastor. During a suc- 
cession of years, the church, under his ministry, enjoyed remark- 
able prosperity. In due time a better location was found at the 
corner of Wabash Avenue and Eighteenth street. Subsequently 
the church removed to the corner of Michigan Avenue and 
Twenty-third street, where a large and handsome edifice was 
erected, the church taking the name of Michigan Avenue Baptist 
Church. The pastors have been: Eev. Eobert Bovd, D. D.; Eev. 
E. G. Tavlor, D.D.; Eev. Samuel Baker, D.D.;" Eev. Jesse B. 
Thomas, D.D.; Eev. F. M. Ellis, Eev. J. W. Custis, and Eev. 
James Patterson. The pastor at present is Eev. K. B. Tupper, 
formerly of Virginia. 

Fourth in order of elate was the Union Park Baptist Church. 
It was organized in September, 1S56. Its first house of worship 
being near Union Park, gave its name to the church. Another 
large and more inviting structure was subsequently built, still 
nearer the Park, at the corner of West Washington and Paulina- 
streets. Subsequently, upon occasion of a union of the Union 
Park with the Ashland Avenue Church, the resulting organiza- 
tion took the name of Fourth Baptist Church. Its pastors have 
been: Eev. A. J. Joslyn, Eev. I. S. Mahan, Eev. E. G. Taylor, 
Eev. Florence McCarthy, Eev. D. B. Cheney, D. D.. and Eev. E. 
B. Hulbert, D. D. ; Dr. Hulbert being in service at the present time. 

About the year 1857, the Berean Baptist Church was organized, 
on the west side of the river. Its first pastor was Eev. Eufus 
Eider, who was followed by Eev. A. Kenyon. It subsequently, 
under the pastorate of Eev. X. F. Eavlin, took the name of the 
Fifth Baptist Church. In the changes made necessary through 
various causes, the field occupied by this church was occupied by 
a new organization, under the name of the Centennial Baptist 
Church, a prosperous and efficient organization, whose successive 
pastors have been Eev. N. E. Wood, Eev. C. E. Hewitt, D. D., 
and Eev. A. H. Parker, who is now in service. 



606 Baptist Denomination in Chicago. 



The North Baptist Church was organized in Xovember, 1857 
being composed of persons living upon that side of the river 
who had been formed into a congregation under the ministry of 
Rev. J. A. Smith, of the Standard. Its first place of meeting 
was the lecture room of Rush Medical College. In the spring 
and summer of 1858, however, a house of worship was built and 
dedicated at the corner of Ohio and Dearborn streets. The church 
having acquired sufficient strength for the support of a pastor, 
Mr. Smith resigned, and Rev. S. TV. Lynd, D. D., succeeded 
him. He was followed by Rev. A. H. Strong, now President of 
the Rochester Theological Seminery, and he by Rev. A. A. 
Kendrick. who is now President of Shurtleff College, at Upper 
Alton. Mr. Kendrick was succeeded by Rev. Reuben Jeffrey, 
JD. D., and he by Rev. O. T. Walker. The great fire of 1871 de- 
stroyed the house of worship, which was at the time upon Chica- 
go avenue, having been purchased of the Unitarians, and the 
church was scattered. Many of its members, however, were sub- 
sequently re-gathered, and in company with others formed the 
Central Baptist Church, near Lincoln Park, under the care of 
Rev. E. O. Taylor. 

The North Star Church, also upon the north side of the river, 
was originally a mission of the First Church, established in I860, 
at the corner of Division and Sedgwick streets. A valuable prop- 
erty was then secured, at a cost of some 880,000. The great 
fire destroyed the chapel and parsonage, but they were imme- 
diately re-built, through the efforts of Dr. Everts. The mission 
became a church in 1870. The first pastor was Rev. Ceo. L. 
TVrenn. After him came Rev. E. R. Pierce, who was succeeded 
by Rev. J. M. Whitehead ; he by Rev. R. P. Allison, upon whose 
resignation, in 1S79, Rev. Joseph Rowley became pastor. 

The Indian a Avenue Church, at the corner of Indiana Avenue 
and Thirtieth street, was also originally a mission of the First 
Church, founded in 1863, at which time a neat brick chapel was 
built upon lots donated for the purpose. Rev. J. A. Smith, D. 
D., served as the first pastor, from 1863 to 186S,when he was suc- 
ceeded by Rev. M. S. Riddell, D. D., after whom came Rev. F. 
D. Rickerson and Rev. TV. TV. Everts, Jr. Upon the removal of 
the First Church to its present location, the Indiana Avenue 
Church was united with it. 

In 1S6S members of the Indiana Avenue Church united with 
others living near the University, in forming the University 
Place Church. Its first place of meeting was the chapel of the 
University. Subsequently a place of worship was built near the 
corner of Thirty-fifth street and Rhodes Avenue. Besides Dr. 
Smith, the church has been served in its pastorate by Rev. TVm. 



The University. 607 

ITaoTie, D. D.. Rev. J. B. Jackson, D. D., Rev. A. J. Frost, Rev. 

A. Owen. D. D., and Rev. J. T. Burhoe. 

Other churches not named above, are the South Baptist Church, 
organized in 1S6T; Western Avenue, 1869; Coventry Street, 
1870; Dearborn Street, 1875; Olivet (colored), 1853; Providence 
(colored), 1S7I, with German, Swedish and Danish churches. 



THE UNIVERSITY. 

The first steps toward the planting of a University in the city 
of Chicago, were taken about the year 1S55-56. The idea seems 
to have originated with the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, then 
United States Senator for the State of Illinois. He proposed to 
donate for this purpose a site embracing ten acres of land, located 
near the lake, in the south part of the city. Rev. J. C. Burroughs, 
at that time pastor of the First Baptist Church, learning that 
such an offer had been made, visited Mr. Douglas at Wash- 
ington, and found him prepared to entertain with much favor 
a proposal to make this donation for a University to be found- 
ed under the general auspices of the Baptist denomination; 
his wife then recently deceased, and whose memory was 
tenderly cherished by him, having been a Baptist. A deed 
of gift was accordingly made over to Mr. Burroughs by Mr. Dong- 
las, of the land in question, in trust, for an institution of the 
kind named. It was provided that the University should be 
solely for purposes of general education, and that while cer- 
tain rights of control should be allowed to the Baptist denomi- 
nation, the institution should be so far undenominational as that 
representation in the faculty and board of trustees, as well as the 
privileges of admission to the several departments of instruc- 
tion, should be open to all. 

Mr. Burroughs immediately entered upon efforts for the raising 
of the funds necessary to erect suitable buildings and to endow 
the chairs. Resigning his pastorate, he applied himself personally, 
and with the co-operation of others, especially of Rev. J. B. Olcott, 
as agent, to that new work. By October, 1856, he was able to 
announce that the sum of 8100,000 had been pledged. It was 
found necessary that a building should be immediately erected, 
as no sufficient accommodations could be had in the heart of the 
city where the proposed location was to be, nor even down town, 
where a preparatory department was opened in 1858, in the base- 
ment of the Universalist church on "Wabash avenue. The corner- 
stone of the present south wing of the University building was 
accordingly laid, with appropriate ceremonies, July 1, 1S57, Sen- 



60S The University. 

ator Douglas, Hon. I. N". Arnold, Rev. Robert Boyd, Rev. A. J. 
Joslyn, Dr. W. GL Howard, Rev. Lewis Raymond, and others, 
participating. This building supplied accommodations to the 
University during some six or seven years, when the edifice as it 
now stands was erected, Rev. M. G-. Clarke being then the Finan- 
cial Agent, and the work being done largely under his direction. 

Immediately upon the institution of active measures for found- 
ing the University, the presidency of the institution was tendered 
to Mr. Burroughs. His own preference was that some one al- 
ready well-known as an educator should be called to this post, 
and by himself a strong effort was made to bring Dr. Francis 
"Waylancl to accept the service. Dr. "Wayland declining, the 
Board of the University continued to press the office upon Mr. 
Burroughs, who at length accepted it. The difficulties incident 
to such a service, in connection with a new enterprise, was in this 
instance much increased by the, necessity Mr. Burroughs felt 
himself to be under of associating financial administration with 
the executive duties commonly assigned to the presidency of a 
literary institution. In the financial embarrassments and other 
disasters with which the city was visited, the University shared, 
to an extent that very much crippled its resources. A consider- 
able percentage of the early subscriptions noticed above could 
not be collected. Loans were necessary to meet the cost of 
building and to cover other necessary expenses; accrued interest 
added to the burden, until, as has so often occurred in the history 
of incipient educational enterprises, the burden became a most 
serious one. 

It will be sufficient in this place, to simply allude to the differ- 
ences that arose in the Board of Trustees, partly personal, partly 
upon questions of policy. These grew at last, how r ever, to a point 
that made it seem desirable that a change in the administration 
should take place. The office of Chancellor was accordingly cre- 
ated, with a view to separate the duties of financial and general 
administration from those more proper to the President's office, 
Dr. Burroughs was elected Chancellor, and Rev. Lemuel Moss, 
D. D., of Crozer Theological Seminary, was chosen President. 
This change was made in the year 1873, Dr. Burroughs having 
served as President some fifteen years. The new management, 
however, came to an end at the close of the year, Dr. Moss be- 
coming President of the Indiana State University. After an in- 
terval of one year, Hon. Alonzo Abernethy, Superintendent of 
Public Instruction for the State of Iowa, a former pupil of the 
University, was chosen President, remaining in office some two 
years, when Galusha Anderson, D. D., now the President, was 
called from the pastorate of the Second Baptist Church to the re- 
sponsible and difficult post. 



The Theological Seminary. 609 

By the depreciation of values, so general throughout the coun- 
try, the property of the University has fallen much below the 
estimate placed upon it in more prosperous times, while large 
amounts in subscriptions and notes have, in the financial losses 
experienced by those who gave them, become uncoilectable. In 
other respects, however, the outlook is greatly improved. Entire 
harmony has been restored in the Board of Management; the dis- 
credit always occurred by dissensions in such bodies has passed 
away; the faculty of instruction is certainly not less capable and 
efficient than at any former period, while the attendance of stu- 
dents yearly increases. The graduating class for 1880 numbered 
twenty-six, the largest in the history of the University. 



THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 

The Union Baptist Theological Seminary was founded in 1865 
when the charter of incorporation was granted by act of the State 
Legislature. Preliminary steps had previously been taken to this 
end, especially the organization of the Baptist Union for Theo- 
logical Education, in 1860, and the opening of a theological class- 
by Dr. Nathaniel Colver, as Professor of Doctrinal Theology. With- 
him Rev. J. C. C. Clarke became associated, in 1866, as Professor 
of New Testament Interpretation. A full faculty organization,, 
however, was not effected until the autumn of 1866, when Rev. 
G. W. Northrup, D. D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Ro- 
chester Theological Seminary, was elected President and Pro- 
fessor of Christian Theology, in place of Dr. Colver, who had be- 
come President of a Freedmen's Institute at Richmond, Ya., and 
Rev. J. B. Jackson, of Albion, N. Y., Professor of Church His- 
tory. Prof. Clarke, about the same time, resigned to enter the pas- 
torate, and Rev. Gr. "W. Warren, of Boston, was elected Professor 
of Hebrew and Exegesis. 

The work of instruction under the new faculty organization be- 
gan Oct. 2, 1867, and that of providing funds at the same time, 
Rev. Gr. S. Bailey having been made the Financial Secretary. 
The friends of the institution came forward generously, and current 
expenses not only were well provided for, but a property soon se- 
cured, valued at some $80,000, including a fine brick building, 
erected and dedicated in 1869, to which were added other assets, 
making the whole amount $144,000, the liabilities being reported 
at $54,266. The financial management, since that date, has ex- 
perienced the vicissitudes realized by other similar enterprises 
during the period. About the year 1876 a desirable property 
was secured at Morgan Park, fourteen miles from the centre of 
39 



610 Journalism, 

the city, mostly through donations, and an excellent building 
erected, chiefly through the generosity of the "Blue Island Land 
and Building Company. In the autumn of 1876 the Seminary 
was removed to these new quarters, the building in the city, ad- 
joining the University grounds on the west, being rented, and 
the income used to cover the interest upon the debt. 

In the year 1869 a very valuable acquisition was made by the 
Seminary in the purchase of the Hengstenberg Library, belong- 
ing to the estate of the distinguished Dr. Hengstenberg, of Ber- 
lin, Prussia; the collection is very rich, especially in Calvinistic 
and Mediaeval literature, numbering some thirteen thousand vol- 
umes. To this, later, was added the library of Dr. G-. B. Ide, 
upon occasion of his death at Springfield, Mass. The library 
now numbers some twenty thousand volumes. With the faculty 
of instruction have been connected, besides those mentioned 
above, Dr. Wm. Hague, E. C. Mitchell, D. D.. K. E. Pattison, D. 
D., A. N". Arnold, D. D., and B. Maimon. The present faculty 
is G. W. INorthrup, D. D., President and Professor of System- 
atic Theology; J. B. Boise, Ph. D., D. D., LL. D., Professor of 
.New Testament Exegesis and Literature; T. J. Morgan, D. D., 
Professor of Church History; W. R. Harper, Ph. D., Professor 
of Hebrew and Old Testament Literature, J. A. Edgren, D. D., 
Professor in the Scandinavian Department; Galusha Anderson, 
D. D., Special Lecturer on Homiletics and Pastoral Duties; and 
J. A. Smith, D. D., Special Lecturer on Modern Church His- 
tory, Origin of Religions, and Philosophy. 

The Scandinavian Department in the Seminary is a very im- 
portant and interesting feature. It was organized in 1873, under 
the instructions of Prof. Edgren, and has steadily grown tn value 
and influence. It is the only department of its kind in the coun- 
try, and has already sent forth a considerable number of educated 
men to preach to the Scandinavians in their own language. 



JOURNALISM. 

In the year 1853, Leroy Church and Rev. J. A. Smith, the 
former having recently resigned a pastorate at Hudson, 1ST. Y., 
and the latter one at Rochester, came to Chicago as editors and 
proprietors of the Christian Times. Some six or seven years 
previously, the Watchman of the Prairies had been established 
here by Rev. Luther Stone, who, about the year 1852, sold his 
interest in that paper to Rev. J. C. Burroughs, by whom the 
publication was resumed under the name of the Christian 
Times. Of Mr. Burroughs the paper was purchased by Messrs. 



Presbyterian Churches of Chicago. Oil 

Church and Smith, the latter, however, giving place in the 
proprietorship to Rev. J. F. Childs, retaining only the editorial 
connection with the paper, in which he has cou tinned to the 
present date. Mr. Childs after some two years retiring from 
the paper, his place was taken by Mr. Edward Goodman, and 
the paper continued to be published for nearly twenty years by 
the firm of Church & Goodman. In December, 1874, the interest 
of Mr. Church was purchased by Dr. J. S. Dickerson, of Boston, 
whose decease in about one year after, transferred his 
interest to his wife, Mrs. Emma R. Dickerson. Subsequently 
the eldest son of Dr. Dickerson, Mr. J. Spencer Dickerson, was 
admitted to the firm, which now bears the name of Goodman & 
Dickerson. 

In the course of its career of some twenty- seven years, the 
paper has incorporated with itself several other papers ; first the 
Illinois Baptist, published for some two or three years at 
Bloomington, then the Witness, of Indianapolis, Indiana ; later 
the Michigan Christian Herald, of Detroit. Upon the occasion 
of the last consolidation it changed its name to the Stan dard, 
which it still bears. It ranks second in point of circulation 
among the Baptist papers of the country. 



PRESBYTERIAN- CHURCHES OF CHICAGO. 

BY PROF. W. M. BLAGXBUBN, D. D. 

In 1832 the Eev. Jeremiah Porter, Chaplain of a garrison in 
Fort Brady, organized a small Presbyterian church at the Sault 
Ste. Marie. Soon afterwards Major D. F. Wilcox, one of its pillars, 
and Major John Fowle, with some troops, were ordered to Fort 
Dearborn. In these departing families were most of Mr. Porter's 
flock. He accepted their invitation to join them, especially as 
he had been requested by the Home Missionary Society, at Bos- 
ton, "to explore the shores of Lake Michigan," to see if there 
were any settlements where the gospel might be preached. On 
landing at Fort Dearborn, this company received a warm welcome 
from a little band of praying men, and John Wright, grasping 
the hand of Mr. Porter, exclaimed, " I have written and written 
in vain for a minister; this is like the bursting out of the sun 
from the darkest clouds I" 

This joy was shared by Philo Carpenter, who had in August, 
1832, gathered fifteen children "in a log house at the Point," 
and thus organized the first Sunday-school in Northern Illinois, 
except one founded by the Pev. Aratus Kent, in a dram-shop at 



612 Presbyterian Churches of Chicago. 

Galena. Already the venerable Jesse Walker had a missionary 
station on the AVest Side, so that the first known Protestant 
preacher in Chicago was a Methodist. The first Sunday-school, 
in its wanderings, had shelter in his house for a time. 

In a carpenter shop of the military post, Mr. Porter began to 
preach, and about six weeks thereafter the First Presbyterian 
Church of this city was organized — June 25, 1S33 — with twenty- 
six members, nine of them being residents, a*nd sevent en belong- 
ing to the garrison. It was attached to the nearest Presbytery, 
that of Detroit. Steps were soon taken to build a house of wor- 
ship. It was a frame building about forty feet by twenty-five, 
furnished with plain benches, and costing $600. On Jan- 
uary 4-th, IS 34, it was dedicated, "mercury that morning 24° 
below zero." It stood just north of the present Sherman House. 
"People wondered, why on earth Mr. Porter put the church 
away off there on the prairie." 

The first Sunday-school, whose " library was comfortably car- 
ried in a silk handkerchief,' 'was now brought into the new edifice. 
In this school were the girls whose needlework brought the sum 
of 8140, " to the great joy, 7 ' says Mr. Porter, " of the church 
and its children. By vote of the society, that money was sent to 
Charles Gutzlaff, then the apostle to China. Three children of 
its teachers are now foreign missoinaries. 

Dr. Arthur Mitchell, the present pastor, (18S0), says that the 
members of the infant church immediately took measures to se- 
cure and sustain a public school. Up to this time, Miss Chap- 
pel, assisted by several ladies from the church, who were aided 
by funds contributed in churches East, had kept the only school 
in the place. It had been very successful. Seeing its prosperity, 
John S. Wright, eldest son of Deacon Wright, now built Miss 
Chappel a new school-house at his own expense. Just at that 
time a school fund was realized through the sale of public lands, 
and it was no longer necessary to ask Eastern churches to support 
the teachers. The school, then numbering 150 scholars, was 
committed to a board of trustees, and was transferred to Mr. 
Wright's new school-house. This was the first public school in 
Chicago.* 

In 1834 this church became self-sustaining, and it connected 
itself with the newly formed Presbytery of Peoria. The next 

*The public lands, whose sale is here referred to, comprised the 640 acres now 
bounded by Madison, State, Twelfth and Halsted streets, one hundred and forty- 
two blocks. " Of these," says Mr. Porter, " one hundred and thirty-eight were 
sold for $38,865. The four blocks remaining- in the possession of the city 
are now worth a million of dollars! Mr. Carpenter then urged that they should 
sell only alternate blocks ; but he was overruled, and the school fund is now 
twenty millions the poorer for it. ' ' 



Presbyterian Churches of Chicago. 613 

spring Mr. Porter was sent to tlie Presbyterian General Assem- 
bly, at Pittsburgh, as the first commissioner from Northern Illi- 
nois. Thus lie was brought somewhat into the trial of the Rev. 
Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia; a trial which contributed largely 
to the disruption of his denomination in 1837. and the separate 
existence of "the Old School and the Xew School brandies." 
After the resignation of Mr. Porter, this mother church held its 
influential position in the branch called Xew School, until there- 
union of the two bodies in 1S69-70, and this fact doubtless had 
its effect for many years, in determining the ecclesiastical rela- 
tions of the Presbyterian churches organized in Chicago, and its 
vicinity. Their early history is largely that of her colonies. 

The first colony was the nucleus of the Second Presbyterian 
Church, organized in June, 1842, with twenty-six members, under 
the pastorate of the Pev. Pobert W. Patterson, who ably contin- 
ued his pastoral care of it until 1873, when he accepted a pro- 
fessorship in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Chicago. 
Their first services were held in the third story of " the City 
Saloon," on the south-east corner of Clark and Lake streets; but 
in the next September they entered more sacred quarters. The 
Hon. William Bross tells us that, in 1846, after his first breakfast 
in Chicago, " a tall young man, made apparently taller by a cloth 
cloak, in which his gaunt figure seemed in danger of losing itself, 
and whose reserved, modest manners were the very reverse of 
what we had expected to find at the West, called on the clergy 
of our party and invited one of them to preach and the rest of us 
to attend service in the Second Presbyterian Church. That cloak 
would now be well filled by its owner, the Rev. Dr. Patterson, 
who has grown physically as well as intellectually and morally, 
with the growth of the city, to whose moral welfare he has so 
largely contributed. Of course we all went to what by courtesy, 
as we thought, was called a church. It was a one-story balloon 
shanty-like structure, that had been patched out at one end to 
meet the wants of the increasing congregation. It stood on Ran- 
dolph street, south side, a little east of Clark. It certainly gave 
no promise of the antique but splendid church that before the fire 
stood on the corner of Washington s f reet and Wabash avenue, or 
that still more elaborate and costly building, the Rev. Dr. 
Gibson's church, at the corner of Michigan avenue and Twentieth 
street." 

The romance of pioneer life does not enter so largely into the 
history of other Presbyterian Churches in Chicago. They have 
grown from, and w'th, the city's growth. The Third Church 
was organized in July, 1847, Philo Carpenter being one of its 
thirty-five original members. Its first house of worship, costing 



614 The Theological Seminary of the Worth-West. 

about $1,325, stood then in a corn-field on Union street, near 
Washington, on the West Side. This church removed in 1858 
to the corner of Washington and Carpenter streets, and thence 
in 1877 to Ashland avenue, where its membership, under the 
pastorate of Dr. A. E. Kittredge, has become one of the largest 
in the denomination. 

The first organization in Chicago in connection with the Old 
School branch was the North Church. It was organized in 1848 
by Rev. It. H. Richardson, and, after holding meetings for some 
time in Rush Medical College, had its own house of worship on 
the corner of Illinois and Wolcott streets. Later it removed 
northward to a nobler building, and in 1870 it and the West- 
minster Church (N. S.) were united under the title of the 
Fourth Presbyterian Church. 

In 1869 there were eleven New School and four Old School 
churches in Chicago and its nearest suburbs. The re-union of 
the two branches, in 1870, brought them into one denomination. 
This and the great fire of 1871 were the chief reasons for consol- 
idating some of them. Others have been added to the list, so 
that there are now, within and near the city, twenty- three organ- 
izations, 'which constitute half the number of churches in the 
present Presbytery of Chicago. There are, also, in this city, 
two or three Preslrv terian churches which belong to other de- 
nominations. The Presbyterians of Chicago have been active in 
education, and from them have come most of the funds em- 
ployed in establishing their Theological Seminary within the 
city limits, and the University at Lake Forest, about twenty-five 
miles northward on the shores of Lake Michigan. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE 
NORTH-WEST. 

BY PROF. W. M. BLACKBURN, D. D. 

This institution was founded in 1830, in connection with 
Hanover College, at Hanover, Indiana. In 1840 it was removed 
to New Albany, Indiana, where it prospered until 1853, when 
various causes led to its embarassment. At length the majority 
of the synods most concerned in its welfare, favored its transfer 
to Chicago. While the Be v. N. L. Pice, D. D., pastor of the 
North Church, Chicago, and other gentlemen of " the North- 
west," were devising means for its new location and maintain- 
ance, certain lands were conditionally promised to it, and Mr. 
Cyrus II. McCormick generously offered $100,000 for the endow- 



Chicago Theological Seminary. 615 

ment of four professorships. The Presbyterian General Assem- 
bly of 1859, sanctioned these measures, took the proffered con- 
trol of the Seminary and elected four professors. In the autumn 
of that year the Seminary was opened in Chicago by the instal- 
lation of Kev. Drs. N. L. Kice, Willis Lord, L. J.' Halsey and 
W. M. Scott in their respective chairs. 

The institution was finally located on the southwest corner of 
Halsted street and Fullerton avenue, on part of twenty-five 
acres of land donated conditionally to it in 1863, by Messrs. 
Ogden, Sheffield and Lill. The conditions were that the semi- 
nary should be provided with suitable buildings, and maintained 
on this site twenty -five years. The prospects are that the condi- 
tions will be fulfilled, and in 1888 the title to the land perfected. 
The present buildings are excellent in appearance and for their 
purposes, and are already surrounded by a grove of plan ted trees. 
, An endowment of $134,600, chiefly contributed by the Hon. 
Cyrus H. McCormick, of Chicago, produces an income for the 
salaries of four professors, the fifth professor being supported by 
a special fund contributed for his maintainance. There are en- 
dowments of about $18,700, for other purposes. There are now 
about 9,000 volumes in the library. 

The Seminary now is under the control of a board of forty 
directors. A board of seven trustees has charge of its property 
and financial interests. 

"This Institution is open to students of all denominations 
of Christians. Its object is the thorough training of young men 
for the ministry of the gospel. The requisites for admission are, 
a consistent Christian profession in connection with some Evan- 
gelical Church, and a regular course of collegiate study. Excep- 
tional cases, however, may occnr of such as have not pursued a 
full college course, aud these are referred to the discretion of the 
Faculty." Diplomas are given to students who regularly pursue 
the full course of studies, extending through three years, in the 
departments of systematic theology, Church history, pastoral 
duties, Biblical literature, and exegesis, Christian evidences and 
ethics. 



CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY". 

The Chicago Theological Seminary, which dates its existence 
from the fall of 1854, was the first of that group of theological 
seminaries which now make Chicago the great center of theolog- 
ical education in the West. 

The idea of one such institution, which should unite in its 



GxO Chicago Theological Seminary. 

support all the Congregational churches west of Ohio, seems to 
have originated with Rev. Stephen Peet, and soon found favor 
with many of the leading minds in the denomination. 

As a result, at a representative meeting held in Chicago, June 
12, 1854, with Rev. Ason Turner, Jr., of Iowa, for moderator, 
and Rev. G. S. F. Savage, of Illinois, as scribe, steps were taken 
for calling a convention of all the Congregational ministers and 
churches of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, "Wisconsin, Iowa, Min- 
nesota and Missouri, to inaugurate the enterprise. 

That com r ention met in Chicago September 26, 1854, and with 
great t unanimity ratified the action which had been taken in pre- 
liminary conferences, endorsed the general plan proposed, elect- 
ed a board of twenty-four directors, and committed to them the 
necessary work to be done in laying the foundations of the 
projected seminary. 

Rev. Stephen Peet, the first President of the Board, was ap- 
pointed general agent, and entered at once, vigorously, upon the 
work of securing funds for the endowment of the institution. 

February 15, 1855, a liberal charter, which exempted all the 
property of the Seminary from taxation, was granted by the 
State Legislature of Illinois, incorporating them : " A body 
politic and corporate, to be styled the Board of Directors of the 
Chicago Theological Seminary," and whose object it declares 
shall be, "to establish a Seminary, located in or near the city of 
Chicago, that shall furnish instruction and the means of educa- 
tion to young men preparing for the Gospel ministry, said in- 
stitution being equally open to all denominations of Christians 
for this purpose." 

The charter members of the Board of Directors were dis- 
tributed among the States as follows : 

Michigan — Rev. L. Smith Hobart, Rev. Harvey D. Kitchell, 
D. D., Rev. Adam S. Keclzie, Judge Solomon L. Withey and 
Joseph Beebe, Esq. 

Illinois — Rev. Stephen Peet, Rev. Win. Carter. Rev. Flavel 
Bascom, D. D., Rev. G. W. Perkins, Rev. J. C.'llolbrook, D. 
D., Rev. K II. Eggleston, Rev. G. S. F. Savage, D. D., Phiio 
Carpenter, Esq., and Joseph Johnston, Esq. 

Iowa — Rev. A. B. Bobbins, D. D., Rev. J. Gurnsey, and J. 
C. Foote, Esq. 

Wisconsin — Rev. C. W. Camp, Rev. Hiram Foote, Rev. J. J. 
Mi'er, D. D., and-IIonce Hobart, Esq. 

Minnesota — Rev. Richard Hall. 

Indiana — Rev. M. Agustus Jewett. 

Missouri — Rev. Truman M. Post, D. D. 

The Directors hold their office for six years, but are eligible 



i 



Chicago Theological Semln try. GIT 

for re-election. One-half of this Board, and also of the .Board 
of Visitors, are chosen every three years by a Triennial Conven- 
tion, consisting of the Congregational ministers, and one dele- 
gate from each Congregational Church in the ten States of the in- 
terior. The Seminary is thus kept close to the heart of the 
churches, and made responsible to them. 

The institution was opened for students in October, 183S, 
with two professors, Rev. Joseph Haven, D. D., and liev. Sam- 
uel C. Bartlett, D. D. It now lias a faculty of six professors, 
viz: Prof. Franklin W. Fish, D. D., Prof!' G. X. Boardman, 
D. D., Prof. J. T. Hyde, D. D., Prof. T. W. Hopkins, A. M./Prof. 
S. Ives Cnrtiss, D. F>., and Prof. G. Buckingham AYilcox, D. D. 

Two hundred and seventeen students have graduated from the 
institution, and two hundred and eleven others have taken apart 
of their course here. These students have come from twenty-four 
of the states and territories of the Union — from Canada, England, 
Ireland, Scotland, \Yales, France, Germany, Holland, Iceland, 
Africa and India. Thev have received their collegiate education 
in forty-four different colleges. 

The Seminary buildings, Hayes and Carpenter Flails, erected 
at a cost of about 870,000, are pleasantly located on Ashland and 
Warren avenues, opposite Union Park, and in addition to chapel 
and lecture rooms, furnish dormitory and study rooms for the 
accommodation of eighty students. A substantial fire-proof 
library hall is soon to be erected on the Seminary grounds, the 
gift of Col. C. G. Hammond. 

In addition to the large private libraries of the professors, 
there is a valuable public library of nearly 8,000 volumes, for the 
free use of the students. 

The estimated value of the property held by the Seminary is 
about $100,000, of which $125,000 is included in the grounds, 
building, library, furniture, etc. The endowment funds amount 
to $265,000, of which the income only can be used. The balance 
of the assets are general funds which can be used in meeting 
current expenses. 

This seminary, though only in its infancy, has laid deep and 
broad foundations for a large growth and prosperity. Every year 
of its existence has shown more clearly the wisdom and necessity 
for its existence, and the superior advantages of its location. 

Planted in the very heart of the great empire states of the in- 
terior, with a present constituency of over fourteen hundred Con- 
gregational Churches; with an able faculty, who are the peers of 
the best instructors of the older seminaries of the land ; surrounded 
by a cordon of colleges from which to draw its students, it 
occupies a field second to none in its importance and promise. 

G. S. F. Sayage. 



G18 The Congregational Denomination of Chicago, 



[From the Advance.] 
THE CONGREGATIONAL DENOMINATION OF CHICAGO. 

FROM SMALL THINGS TO GREAT IN THE CHICAGO ASSOCIATION. 

The Committee appointed to gather up the results of Congre- 
gational work in this Association during its first quarter-century, 
respectfully report: 

This Association, consisting originally of three churches and 
nine ministers, was organized Tuesday, April 12, 1853. Just 
twenty years earlier, June, 1833, when Chicago was little more than 
a frontier military post, the First Presbyterian Church of this city 
was organized, consisting of twenty-five members from the garri- 
son and nine from the citizens of the place, thirty-four in all. 
This is the oldest and first-organized church on this field. It is 
understood that Rev. Jeremiah Porter, who officiated in its forma- 
tion, and a large majority of its original members, were from 
Congregational churches and of Congregational preferences, but 
in the providence of God, as our Presbyterian brethren would 
doubtless say, this powerful organization, which has done so much 
to shape the polity of surrounding churches, became Presbyterian. 

Later in the same year, 1833, the First Baptist Church of this 
city was organized. In the spring of 1834 three other churches, 
the First Methodist, the St. James Episcopal, and a Roman 
Catholic entered the field, and as the population of the city 
increased, other denominations came in, and churches multiplied. 
Our own denomination instead of being first, is, with the excep- 
tion of the Reformed Episcopal, last; instead of being the oldest, 
is, with this exception, the youngest in the sisterhood of churches. 

Before any Congregational movement was inaugurated, the 
city had attained a population of some 30,000 inhabitants, embrac- 
ing many strong churches of almost every denomination, some of 
them having commodious houses of worship, offering inviting 
homes for Congregationalists and for all classes of Christians 
seeking a residence in this growing commercial center; and the 
ground had become so thoroughly pre-empted and so well occu- 
pied, it seemed doubtful whether there was room for churches of 
the Pilgrim order. "Whether this long delay was a loss to our 
common Christianity or not, it certainly proved a serious loss to 
our denomination — a loss of nearly all the Congregational 
element which came to this city during the first twenty years of 
its existence. 



The Congregational Denomination of Chicago. 610 

Finally, in the spring of 1851, our denomination entered the 
field. It came not to preach any other Gospel than that which 
was already preached; not to build on any other man's founda- 
tion; not in any spirit of rivalry or hostility to churches of oilier 
names, but as a fellow laborer in the kingdom and patience of 
Jesus Christ. 

We were influenced mainly by three considerations: (1), The 
impression which time is verifying, that Chicago was destined to 
become a great city, and there was room and work for Christians 
of every name. (2) 3 The conviction that Congregational brethren 
who were seeking, and were to seek, a residence in this city, 
would feel more at home, and do more and better work in a 
church of their own order, than in any other. And (3), the con- 
viction that there was need of churches of more pronounced and 
active antagonism to the system of American slavery than any 
already in the field. But these considerations might have proved 
ineffective for a much longer period, had not a movement in the 
providence of God been precipitated upon us and rendered almost 
a necessity. 

It was in this wise: The Third Presbyterian Church of this 
city, desiring to relieve themselves of all complicity with Amer- 
ican slavery, declared by vote of forty-two out of sixty-eight res- 
ident members, their purpose to stand aloof from all meetings 
of the Presbytery, Synod and General Association of this branch 
of the Presbyterian Church, until it assume an attitude less 
equivocal and apologetic toward the "sum of all villainies." 
.Refusing to rescind this action, the Chicago Presbytery declared 
all who voted for it outside the Presbyterian church, and or- 
dered their names erased from its roll of members. 

These forty-two brethren and sisters, most of wdiorn had been 
originally members of Congregational churches, finding them- 
selves thus summarily unchurched, felt that a necessity was laid 
upon them to inaugurate a Congregational movement. Hence 
the First Congregational Church of this city, and the great re- 
sults which have followed. We call results great in no spirit of 
boasting. They are clue in a large extent to the mighty trend of 
population which has caused this city to grow in a few years from 
a handful to half a million of people. 

The First Congregational Church was organized, May 22, 
1851, with forty-eight members, forty-two having been excluded 
from the Third Presbyterian. Eighteen months after its organi- 
zation, December, 1852, a colony, impelled by dissatisfaction 
with the status of the Presbyterian General Association toward 
slavery, and by their preferences for Congregational forms, left 
the First Presbyterian Church and formed "the Plymouth Church, 
consisting of forty-eight members. 



G20 The Congregational Denomination of Chicago. 

The spring of 1853 found ns with two churches in the city, 
and four scattered through the neighboring region — one at Crete, 

organized ISIS; one at Fremont, organized 1838; one at Lyons- 
ville, organized 1843; and F one at Millburn, organized 1841; all 
feeble, with an aggregate of probably less than 200 members. 

At an informal meeting, Dec. 1, 1852, of a few Congregational 
brethren, it was resolved to form a congregational Association, 
and Rev. Messrs. Goodman, J. M. Davis, and J. M. Williams, 
were instructed to draft a basis for such an Association, and at 
their discretion call a meeting to complete the organization. A 
meeting for this purpose was called April 12, 1853, in Chicago. 
A constitution was reported — the same with slight alterations, 
we now have — and adopted, and the organization completed, con- 
sisting of three churches: The Free Church of Ottawa, now con- 
nected with Fox River Association; the church at Plum Grove, 
now extinct; and the First Congregational Church of this city, 
and nine ministers: — E. Goodman, R. F. Dickinson, J. M. Wil- 
liams and J. M. Davis, of Chicago; W. M. Richards and E. G. 
Howe, of "Waukegan; W. Holmes, of Plum Grove; Geo. Schlos- 
ser, of Ottowa, and W. H. Starr, of Elgin. Of these, four have 
gone to their reward — the sainted E. Goodman, the young and 
brilliant W. H. Starr, leaving behind a small volume of valuable 
sermons, and Wm. Holmes, the father of the lamented John Mil- 
ton Homes, and S. S. Howe. The remaining live, so far as Ave 
know, are still living. 

There were connected with this Association, for a longer or 
shorter period, during its first quarter-century, forty-seven 
churches and 132 ministers. Of these churches, one, the Taber- 
nacle, became independent. Two, the Edwards, and a Scandina- 
vian church, went over to other denominations; seven appear on 
the rolls of neighboring Congregational Associations, and six 
have either become extinct or absorbed in other churches. Thirty- 
one are still connected with the Association. Of the 132 minis- 
ters, seventy-seven have removed to other fields. Sixteen have 
departed this life, to-wit: E. Goodman, "W. H. Starr, Wm. 
Holmes, Lucius Parker, Chauncey Cook, Edwin Wells, G. W. 
Perkins, M. D. Williams, Samuel Foster, Joseph Haven, James 
II. Dill, S. P. Smith, Thomas Lightbody, M. M. Colhern, E. B. 
Baxter, E. S. Howe; a fraction over twelve per cent, of tha 
whole number. Thirty-nine are still with us. 

The question submitted to your committee is: What were the 
results of Congregational work within the bounds of this Associ- 
ation during the first quarter century of its existence? 

* Read at a late meeting of the Association, and published in accordance with 
a unanimous vote of the meeting. 



The Congregational Denomination of Chicago. 621 

The answer must, of course, be very imperfect. We can give 
only figures, and some of these only approximately correct; but 
figures can express but a fraction of the influence our denomina- 
tion lias thrown into this great sea of influences. The struggles, 
the tears, the prayers, the unspoken words, what was done to 
break the arm of oppression, and create healthful anti-slavery 
sentiment, to promote temperance, education, purity and order, 
ennoble public sentiment to encourage every good and discourage 
every bad work, and prepare the way of the Lord, have gone in- 
to the great archives of unrecorded history. 

It has been laying in churches and schools and other institu- 
tions the foundations of many generations. Its work will appear 
greater and greater as we recede from it. The value of this work 
has been greatly enhanced by the exigencies through which we 
have been passing. The quarter-century covered by our Report 
was the most critical period of our National existence. It syn- 
chronizes with the great struggle on this Continent between tree 
and despotic principles. 

"We've been living, we've been dwelling 
In a grand and awful time; 

and we have occupied one of the foremost fields. "What we have 
done to defend truth, freedom, and religion, to conserve and 
transmit to other generations a free Government and a pure 
Christianity, is too reaching and pervasive to be gathered into 
written history. 

Your Committee has gathered up and summarized a quantity 
of statistics, which, if perfectly accurate, would indicate very 
nearly that kind of work which may be given in numbers, but 
owing to lost records in some cases, and to imperfectly kept rec- 
ords in others, the word approximate or estimated should be 
attached to many of the results we give. 

We are able to report thirty-one new churches gathered on this 
field — Chicago and vicinity — during the first quarter-century of 
this Association. Of these, fourteen were within the limits of 
the city, to wit: New England, South Chicago, Edwards, Salem, 
Union Park, Lincoln Park, South Chicago (Forty-seventh street), 
Tabernacle, Oakland, Bethany, Leavitt street, Clinton street, 
Wicker Park, Tabernacle, Union. These fourteen, with the First 
Congregational and the Plymouth, previously organized, make a 
total of sixteen Congregational churches organized in this city. 
Outside the city there were during this time seventeen organized, 
to wit: Beech er, Blue Island, South Chicago, Desplaines, Evans- 
ton, Glencoe, Plinsdale, Jefferson, Lombard, Lyons, Maywood, 
Oak Park, Park Ridge, Prospect Park, Ravenswood, Wilmette 
and Winnetka. These seventeen, with the four churches pre- 



622 The Congregational Denomination of Chicago, 

viously organized, give twenty-one churches in the vicinity of 
Chicago. Adding the sixteen in the city, we have a total of 
thirty-seven organized on this field. 

Of the fourteen churches organized within the city, one, the 
Tabernacle, became independent; and five others, to wit: the 
South Congregational, the Edwards, the Salem, Wicker Park and 
Oakland, either became extinct, or absorbed in other enterprises, 
leaving within the city at the close of the quarter century, with 
the First and Plymouth, ten churches. All the churches orga- 
nized in the vicinity of Chicago were surviving, making a total of 
thirty-one living churches. 

Of these, nearly all were in vigorous, successful and useful life. 
Among them are found some of the strongest and most flourish- 
ing of our denomination. All but one were found enjoying the 
stated means of grace, under the instructions of the living 
teacher, and but three were receiving Home Missionary aid. 
Twenty-eight of them had comfortable houses of worship; some 
four or five were among the costliest church structures in the 
West; and but few of these churches were seriously embrarassed 
by debt. 

These thirty-one churches report 166 original members. 
Aggregate additions during the quarter century by profession of 
faith, 4,090; by letter, 5,470; total additions, 9,560; total num- 
ber, including original members, 9,726 persons. Removals by 
dismission, 3,660; deaths, 517; by excommunication, 111; total 
dismissions, 4,288; leaving 5,754. 

Ministers ordained, 38; pastors installed, 38; houses of wor- 
ship erected, 45; parsonages, 6; cost of houses of worship, $1,- 
121,000; cost of parsonages, $18,000; aggregate of other church 
expenses, $1,288,000; benevolent contributions, $525,550; total 
cash contributions, $2,934,550, or over $300, or $20 annually per 
capita of all who have been connected with thes'3 churches. This 
is probably within bounds, as large sums have doubtless been 
laid on the altar of God, of which no report will be made in this 
world. These churches report 428 years of Sabbath-school work, 
a term equal to their aggregate life, with an average attendance 
of 190 pupils. 

In conclusion, your committee would say that in presenting 
these figures, they are led to feel that during the first quarter- 
century of the existence of this Association, a good and grand 
work was accomplished on this field, one which cost an amount 
of labor, self-denial, and self-sacrifice, of which God only has 
kept the record, and we rejoice and take courage in the results. 
At the same time, when we reflect upon the needs of the field, 
the incoming tides of evil, our efforts, and churches, and Sab- 



The Episcopal Denomination of Chicago. G23 

batli-scliools seem comparatively insignificant, and we are led to 
earnestly inquire if, after all, we are coming tip to God's ideal of 
re A Christian efficiency, and to lift the prayer that the hand who 
writes the results of the second quarter-century of Congrega- 
tional work in this Association, may he able to make a brighter 
and gladder record. 

J. M. Williams, 1 

E. Bascom, > Com. 

C. G. Hammoxd, I 



THE EPISCOPAL DENOMINATION OF CHICAGO. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church in the diocese of Illinois, was 
organized on Monday, March 9th, 1835. A few clergymen and 
lav delegates from several parishes met in Peoria on this date 
a id proceeding in conformity with the canonical provisions of the, 
General Convention, adopted a constitution, and passed canons. 
and assumed the position of an independent diocese. There were, 
at this time, but four presbyters and two deacons in the whole 
State of Illinois, and two of these, as Bishop Chase afterwards 
stated, "were on the wing." There were four parishes, and, so 
far as ascertained, only thirty-nine communicants. One house o 
worship had been completed. Trinity Church, Jacksonville, has 
the honor of being the first church built and consecrated in the 
diocese. The corner-stone of this church was laid by Bishop 
Smith, of Kentucky, in 1834 and, during the absence of Bishop 
Chase in England, it was consecrated bv Bishop Kemper, Mission- 
ary Bishop of the North- West, in 1S36. 

The convention which organized the diocese of Illinois, invited 
Bishop Chase to take charge of the same and exercise Episcopal 
supervision over it. Bishop Chase had been Bishop of Ohio, but 
having resigned his jurisdiction was living in Michigan. Hav- 
ing signified his acceptance of his new diocese, he made his first 
visit to Illinois in May, 1S35. In his own conveyance he 
traveled round Lake Michigan, and from Michigan City he pro- 
ceeded "on the water's edge of the lake to Chicago, then a newly 
built town of a few houses, and a flourishing trade." There is no 
record that Bishop Chase officiated in Chicago on this occasion. 
In fact, he was out on a tour of inspection, as he could peform no 
Episcopal duty, except such as parishes might request, till the ac- 
tion of the diocesan convention had been ratified by the general 
convention, which in due time was done. 

While there is no record of any services being held in Chicago 
before the 12th dav of October, 1834, when the Eev. Palmer 



624 The episcopal Denomination of Chicago. 

Dyer officiated; the few church people in the town had the privi- 
lege of attending the services held by the army chaplains sta- 
tioned at Fort Dearborn. St. James, the first parish in Chicago, 
was organized, in 1834. The following gentlemen were interested 
in the movement, and the first nine were elected vestrymen: 
William B. Egan, Dr. Philip Maxwell, Giles Spring, John H. 
Kinzie, Dr. Clarke, Gurdon S. Hubbard, John L. Wilcox, William 
Pettit, Eli B. Williams, Jacob Russell and Hans Crocker. The 
communicants were Peter Johnson, Mrs. Peter Johnson, Mrs. 
John H. Kenzie, Mrs. Frances Magill, Mrs. Nancy Hallam, and 
Mrs. Margaret Helm. TheEev. Isaac W. Hallam, still living, of 
Connecticut, was called to the rectorship of the parish, and en- 
tered upon his duties in October, 1884. The first services were 
held in a building on the southeast corner of Kinzie and Wol- 
cott, now State, and in rooms fitted up for the purpose by Mr. 
John H. Kinzie. 

In 1836 Mr. Kinzie donated the lot on the southwest corner 
of Cass and Illinois, on which the first church was erected, at a 
cost of fourteen thousand dollars. It was consecrated by Bishop 
Chase July 10th, 1837. The style of the building was simple 
gothic, and its dimensions, 40 by 60 feet. A bell was in the 
tower bearing the name and date of the church. It had a very 
good, but small organ, and the music was by a voluntary choir. 
On the whole, though, the first St. James was a very modest edi- 
fice compared with those that have followed it. It was in that 
day thought to be very fine and grand for a frontier town. 
There was one feature about the old church which was the espec- 
ial pride of the congregation; it was a large mahogany pulpit, 
some eighteen feet wide, six feet dee]) and fifteen feet high. Be- 
fore this pulpit was the reading-desk, and still in front of the 
reading-desk, the communion table — a plain, honest table, and 
nothing else. All this costly arrangement suited the eye better 
than it did the officiating clergyman, and so in the early times of 
Mr. Clarkson, it had to give way to more modern stjdes and usages. 

During the long and exceedingly successful rectorship of the 
Pev. Dr. Clarkson, now the honored Bishop of Nebraska, and in 
eighteen hundred and fifty-five, the present lot on the south-east 
corner of Cass and Huron was purchased. On this a large, hand- 
some stone church was built, at a cost of about eighty thousand 
dollars, and was first opened for services in December, 1857. 
The great fire nearly destroyed this fine edifice, leaving nothing 
but the walls in an injured condition, standing. It has since 
been re-built, and while from necessity the architectural pro- 
portions have been marred, it is still one of the most imposing 
and commodious churches in the city. There was one thing 



The Episcopal Denomination of Chicago. 625 

connected with this church before the fire, which is worthy of 
being mentioned. Messrs. E. II. Sheldon and E. B. McCagg 

caused to be erected in the vestibule of the church, and at a 
cost of about live thousand dollars, a beautiful marble mon- 
ument to the memory of those members of St. James' who sac- 
rificed their lives in the war for the preservation of the Union. 
It was of elaborate workmanship, and in every way worthy of 
tbe object for which it was built, and of the noble generosity of 
the loyal donors. Inscribed upon its face were the names of those 
who had fallen. St. James parish, from its admirable location, 
and because of having had many of the early and influential resi- 
dents as its members, and because of the substantial worth and 
wealth of the congregation, has always held an important place 
among the Episcopal churches of the Korthwest. Age adds to 
its dignity; and it is with commendable pride that old St. James 
likes to be considered the mother-church. 

From time to time some of the most influential citizens of Chi- 
cago have held office in the parish. Among them may be mem- 
tioned: E. H. Sheldon, C. B. Barrabee, M. Rigginson, Geo. L. 
Dunlap, E. H. Winston, H. A. Lowner, Geo. F. Bumsey, W. B. 
Ogden, Mahlon D. Ogden, I. IS". Arnold, Thomas Drummond,. 
Julian S. Bumsey, Geo. H. Dole, Jos. H. Hoes, and A. C. Calkins.. 

From the small beginning of a parish having but six commun- 
icants, and receiving, because of its weakness, missionary assist- 
ance, has grown the Episcopal Church in this city. 

There are now twelve large and influential churches, besides 
several important missions, which will in time grow into parishes. 
The clergy who are officiating in these parishes are not surpassed 
in the ability, and zeal, and energy with which they uphold the 
honor of Christ and His Church. With a Bishop at their head,. 
who is in every way fitted to be a leader, they rally around him, 
and are in sympathy with him, and with each in the promotion 
of every good work. Probably there has never been a time in 
the history of the Church in this city, when the clergy and laity 
were so united, when they stood so closely together, shoulder to 
shoulder, as a band of brothers, as they do to-day. In union 
there is strength. In union there is aggressive power. In union 
there is the guarantee of conquest. With a traditional policy of 
conservation, which grows out of our staid system of worship, 
and the stability of our creed, the Episcopal Church makes haste 
slowly. She goes forward with calmness and deliberation, and is 
always sure of holding the ground when once possessed; she 
plants herself to remain. 

The Bev. Henry J. Whitehouse, D.D., rector of St. Thomas 
Church, 1ST. Y., was elected assistant Bishop of the diocese of 
40 



626 The Episcopal Denomination of Chicago. 

Illinois, in 1851, and on the death of Bishop Chase in 1852, suc- 
ceeded according to canon, to the jurisdiction of the diocese. In 
the death of Bishop Chase, the church lost one of her great 
pioneer missionary Bishops, "of powerful physical frame, of strong 
intellect, and indomitable will; all obstacles and hindrances and 
difficulties were crushed under him. In 1819 he was made 
Bishop of Ohio, after having before served in the State as a mis- 
sionary. Cheerfully and successfully he encountered all the 
trials and difficulties of his new position. In Illinois he found 
his labor harder, for age and bodily infirmities had crept upon 
him; but the old lire was in his soul, and he only laid aside his 
armor when death compelled him. 

Bishop Whitehouse was a man of superior attainments, of fine 
culture, and brought to the administration of his office the high- 
est knowledge and the greatest dignity of character. Thoroughly 
read in the history of the church, understanding the strong 
points in growth and development, grasping with keenness and 
sagacity the primitive idea of the Episcopate, he had long pon- 
dered over the question of establishing in this country the cathedral 
system. Not the cathedral system of Europe, but the cathedral 
as the exponent of the simple idea that the Bishop is the chief 
minister in the diocese; that the Bishop might have a church in 
which the Episcopal chair should have a recognized official place; 
a church in which he might officiate at pleasure; in which he 
might hold his nominations, and in the management of which he 
might not be interfered with; a church in which there^should be 
no pew system, and in which the poor should have the gospel 
preached to them. This cathedral should be the centre of 
church work; to it should be attached a sufficient number of 
clergy to do the missionary and charitable work of the city and 
surrounding towns; to it should be attached schools and hospi- 
tals, and with it should be connected a clergy house for the ac- 
commodation of the clergy passing through or visiting the city. 

This was a noble grand scheme in its conception. The Bishop 
never thought of accomplishing this comprehensive plan in a 
day or a generation. But he believed in laying the foundation, 
in commencing the work, and in letting the servants of God de- 
velop and complete it in His own good time. Nor did the Bishop 
ever suppose that this cathedral would in any w r ay interfere with 
or abridge the pow T er or organization of parishes, or subvert their 
independence. It is due to the memory of Bishop Whitehouse 
to say that he was the first one in this country to broach the 
cathedral system. His plans met w r ith great opposition, both 
within and without the diocese. But he knew that lie was right, 
and feeling that prejudice w r ould die out in time, when the plan 



The Episcopal Denomination of Chicago. 627 

was shown to be harmless, he, in 1861, purchased the Church of 
the Atonement, on the corner of Washington and Peoria streets, 
and commenced his work in a very modest and unobtrusive way. 
The Bishop was right in his judgment. Prejudice and clamor 
have died out. Cathedral spires are rising in every diocese. Not 
one word is spoken against them. But to the honor of Chicago it 
may be said, that in it was founded the first cathedral. The Church 
of the Atonement, now known as the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and 
Paul, has received many important additions and improvements. 
Within the last } T ear it has been most beautifully frescoed, a hand- 
some marble altar has been erected, and all indebtedness having 
been liquidated, it was consecrated last December in the presence 
of many Bishops and clergymen, by Bishop McLaren, the Bishop 
of the diocese. To his indefatigable efforts and his warm 
sympathy with the cathedral principle, is to be attributed its 
present prosperous condition. In all this he has been ably as- 
sisted by Canon Knowles. 

Bishop Whitehouse having died in IS 7-1. was in 1875 suc- 
ceeded by the Rev. William E. McLaren, L. L. D., rector of 
Trinity Church, Cleveland, Ohio. Bishop McLaren is a most 
worthy successor to Bishops Chase and Whitehouse. Under his 
able and wise administration of the diocese, it soon became appa- 
rent that it must be divided. It was too large for the streugth 
and time of one man, however capable and energetic. Seeing 
that the necessities of the church demanded division, he very soon 
in his episcopate, began to work in a practical and effective way 
for its consummation. The old diocese was co-extensive with the 
State. There are now three dioceses within the same boundaries, 
each having its own bishop and progressing in a healthy and sat- 
isfactory manner. Thus the little "one," in 1835, "has become 
a thousand, and the small one a strong nation." 

St. Luke's Hospital is under the charge of the Episcopal Church. 
It owes its origin to the forethought, and benevolence, and energ 



of the Eev. Dr. Locke, rector of Grace Church. Some years ago, 
the necesity of such an institution being apparent, the Dr. 
started in a modest way the hospital. Year by year it has grown, 
till now the present building has become too small for fill who 
seek admission. It is open to persons of all faiths, and of no 
faith. No question about these things is asked of any applicant. 
The past year the amount contributed and expended was about 
twelve thousand four dollars. Two beds have been endowed; and 
one for incurable cases is now receiving contribution for perma- 
nent endowment. 

The Rev. Dr. Locke is President of the Board of Trustees; and 
under his wise and economical management there is the guaran- 



628 The Jews of Chicago, 

tee of future prosperity, as in the past. And it is hoped the 
time is not far distant, when the wealthy will realize the great 
importance of this noble charity, and erect new and more suita- 
ble buildings, and amply endow it. 

T. "N. Morrison. 

Saint Luke's Hospital is a free hospital under the care of the Episcopal Church. 
Its President must always be one of the rectors of the Episcopal Church in 
Chicago, or the Bishop, and its trustees are taken from the clergy and laity of 
that church. It however makes no distinction of creed, order or nationality, 
but is conducted on the most liberal terms, and is very popular with all classes 
and creeds. 

It was founded in 1863, and its founders were a few ladies who had been 
working for the Military Hospitals at Camp Douglas. They organized them- 
selves under the Rev. Clinton Locke, the rector of Grace Church, who was the 
first president of the hospital, and has always held that office since, and has 
ever been most deeply interested in the work, and gives it much thought and 
time. It has no endowment as yet, but its property is all free from encum- 
brance, and it has a building fund of $18,000. 



REPORT OF MEDICAL BOARD. 

FROM OCT. 1st, 1878, to oct. 1st. 1879. 

No. of Patients remaining in the Hospital, Oct. 1st, 1878 44 

No. of Patients admitted during the year ending Sept. 80th, 1879 279 

No. of Patients discharged during the year 272 

No. of Deaths (males 8, females 8) ; • 16 

No. of Patients remaining in Hospital, Oct. 1st, 1879 85 

No. of Dispensary patients treated during the year 900 

Total number of patients treated during the year 1,223 

No. of Births 14 

Expenses $12,400; capacity of hospital, forty-five beds. 

Clinton Locke, 
President St. Luke's Hospital. 



THE JEWS OF CHICAGO. 

RY REV. B. FELSENTHAL. 

The number of Jews living at present in Chicago, is variously 
estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000. A historian writing 
the history of the North-west, and especially of the great "Western 
metropolis situated at the shore of Lake Michigan, must of 
necessity not neglect to give an account also of the first Jewish 
immigration; of the growth of the important Jewish element in 
our midst; of their temples and societies; their contributions 
towards the development and prosperity of Chicago, spiritually 
and morally, as well as materially, and-so-forth. 

It is very likely that some single Jewish individuals settled in 



The Jews of Chicago. 629 

Chicago, or attempted to settle here between 1830-184:0, for 
in this decade large numbers of German Jews bad come to 
America, expecting to find here not only better prospects in their 
various pursuits of life, but also a refuge from the oppressive 
and exclusive laws under which the Jews still had to suffer at 
that time in the old Fatherland. Here, in the United States, 
they found a new Fatherland, granting them full civil and poli- 
tical rights equally with the citizens of other denominations; and 
these new-comers, confessing the old Hebrew faith, appreciated 
this, and warmly and sincerely was the thankful attachment to 
their new country. 

A large number, of course, remained at first in the great 
cities on the Atlantic sea-shore — in Jsew York, Philadelphia and 
Baltimore; but a considerable number soon found their way to 
the Y alley of the Ohio and to the prairies of the West. 

For the first time a larger number of Israelites came to 
Chicago, or rather, to be more exact, to Cook County, Illinois, in 
1813. A certain Mr. William lienau, a young and enthusiastic 
gentleman of the Jewish faith, then living in Xew York City, 
took measures for the establishment of a Jewish Colonization 
Society, and his labor was not in vain. A number of Israelites 
entered into his plans and intentions, and joined his society. 
After the organization had been sufficiently consummated, the 
society deputed a Mr. Meyer to go West, to select lands for the 
members, upon which they might settle, and to report the results 
of his investigations and researches to the society Mr. Meyer 
accordingly went West, and after looking around for several 
weeks in different parts of the country, he selected a parcel of 
land comprising 160 acres, situated in the town of Schaumburg, 
Cook County, Illinois, which he purchased for himself, and 
where he remained. To the society in JSTew York he reported by 
a written document which was very encouraging, and in which 
he urged the members to migrate to this part of the country 
without hesitation, for — so he said substantially — " This is aland 
in which milk and honey is flowing, particularly for tillers of 
the soil; and this part of the land, and especially the still insig- 
nificant town of Chicago opens furthermore a vista into a large 
commercial future." 

Thereupon the majority of the society set out for the West 
and came to Chicago. They met there Mr. Meyer, and from him 
they received more complete details 

After many consultations, it was found that many disagreed to 
the plans laid out beforehand by Mr. Meyer; the consequence 
was that they did not settle together in a body, as it had been 
intended from the beginning; but still determined to carry out 



630 The Jews of Chicago. 

the plan of farming, they scattered in different directions. Some 
bought farms already improved; others claimed government 
lands; still others settled down in villages, and connected farm- 
ing with mercantile life. 

The majority of these men, by their industry and their frugal 
and economical habits, succeeded in becoming pretty well-to-do. 

After the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the Railroad from 
Chicago to Elgin had been completed, Chicago became quite a 
center of attraction for people inclined to trade, and Jewish fami- 
lies in comparatively large numbers, came to make it their home. 
Tw t o Jewish families had been residing here in the city somewhat 
previous to this time, and one of them, Mr. Benedict Schubert, 
had become quite wealthy It was he who had built the first 
brick house in Chicago. He had been a tailor by trade, and he 
was very poor when he had come to live in that town. But by 
his industry, and the industry of his wife, he soon acquired suf- 
ficient means, and he became, in his day, the only prominent 
merchant tailor in Chicago. 

Mr. Meyer, spoken of before, after having become advanced in 
years, and being without grown children old enough to be of any 
help to him, was among those who came to the city to live 
there. He had sold his farm, and invested all his funds in Chi- 
cago real estate. As a far-seeing man of sound judgment in such 
matters, he advised all his friends and acquaintances to act simi- 
larly; at least, he desired that they should do so with a part of 
their means. By many he was looked upon at an eccentric. 
However, the result proved that he was right. Though his in- 
vestments brought no immediate fruits to himself, yet to those 
who came after him and took his advice, it was a rich mine of 
wealth. 

Chicago had meanwhile became widely known, especially since 
it was rumored that it would be a great railroad center, and 
thereby many Israelites were induced to select this place as their 
home. Among the first ones who about that time came to Chi 
cago, we mention the brothers Kohn, L. Rosenfeld, Jacob Rosen- 
berg, the brothers Bubel, the brothers Greenebaum, Samuel Cole, 
Mayer Klein, M. M. Gerstley, Fuller, Weineman, Brunneman, 
Clayburgh, AYeigselbaum, Zeigler, etc. Since Chicago has had 
enterprising and energetic citizens of the Jewish persuasion in 
almost all branches of mercantile and industrial life, and since 
several years there reside here, also, a considerable number of Is- 
raelites belonging to the learned professions — lawyers, physicians, 
and others — who have justly acquired the esteem of their fellow- 
citizens, and who contributed their share toward the general pros- 
perity and the general good standing of the city. 



The Jews of Chicago. 631 

We would, indeed, have to occupy a large space were we to 
enumerate all the Jewish houses engaged in the various branches 
of business; even then if we would restrict ourselves to whole- 
sale business. Commerce in dry goods, clothing, hardware, boots 
and shoes, tobacco — in short, in every imaginable branch — is large- 
ly shared in by Jewish houses. So are many banking institutions 
owned and successfully conducted by Jewish firms. So is the 
manufacturing of clothing, cutlery, chemical preparations, cigars, 
furniture; so are printing and lithographic institutions, book- 
binderies, tanneries, beef packing houses, etc., etc., conducted by 
Jewish owners and energetic Jewish minds and hands. 

But it is time that we come now to speak of the religious or- 
ganizations of the Jews of Chicago. For the first time the Chi- 
cago Jews entered into such a religious organization in 1815, 
and the first public act by which they demonstrated their exist- 
ence as a body corporate, was the purchase from the city, of a 
piece of ground for a cemetery. This old Jewish cemetery had 
to be given up, as such, in 1856, the city having become mean- 
while so extended that this cemetery was within the city limits. 
At present the same forms a part of the Lincoln Park. JSTot 
long after this cemetery had been acquired, the association who 
owned it organized into a regular congregation. This was the 
first Jewish congregation in Chicago, and very likely of the 
whole North West. It was chartered in 1848 under the name 
u Kehillath An s hey Maarab" (Congregation of the Men of the 
West). Its first services were held in a hall situated in the 
uppermost floor of an old frame building on the southwest corner 
of Lake and Wells streets, and Ignatz Kunreuther was the first 
minister of this congregation. After the congregation had be- 
come strong enough, financially, they leased a lot on Clark 
street, between Quincy and Jackson streets, upon which they 
erected a Synagogue. At the expiration of that lease they 
bought a lot on the northeast corner of Adams and Wells 
streets, where they built another Synagogue. Here they re- 
mained for several years, until the house became too small for 
the congregation. They then sold this property, and bought a 
church on the corner of Peck Court and Wabash Avenue, where 
they remained until the building was destroyed by the great fire 
of 1871. Afterwards they purchased a church on the corner of 
Twenty-sixth street and Indiana Avenue, and there the congre- 
gation Anshey Maarab still worship. 

After .Rev. Mr. Kunreuther above mentioned, the following 
gentlemen officiated successively as ministers of this congrega- 
tion: G. Snydacker, G. M. Cohen, L. Lebrecht, L. Levi, M. Men- 
sor, M. Moses, and L. Adler. The last named Rabbi, who was 



632 The Jews of Chicago. 

called here in 1861, is still occupying the position of the spiritual 
guide of the congregation, and labors within iiis field with great 
success, as a true teacher of religion and of Judaism. 

Not exactly a congregation, but a society of a semi-religious 
character was also instituted at an early date by a number of 
younger Israelites in Chicago, under the name of " Hebrew Be- 
nevolent Society." In its flourishing days it did a great deal of. 
good in the field of charity. It purchased also three acres of 
ground in the town of Lake Yiew (a little south of Graceland), 
and laid it out for a cemetery. 

Later other charitable societies came into existence, by which the 
old Hebrew Benevolent Society became superceded. Nominally, 
however, it still exists, but merely as a burial ground association. 

A second Hebrew congregation was established in 1851 by a 
number of Israelites, mainly from the Eastern provinces of Prus- 
sia, and to which the founders gave the name Kehillath B'nay 
Shalom" (Congregation of the Sons of Peace). This congrega- 
tion rented first a hall in a building on the southwest corner of 
Dearborn and Washington streets; afterwards they occupied a 
hall in a building on Clark street, near Jackson street, and in 
1864 they dedicated their new synagogue on Harrison street, 
near Fourth Avenue. This structure, in its time the most beau- 
tiful of all the Chicago synagogues, fell a prey to the great con- 
flagration of 1871. Since then the congregation, which had 
greatly suffered by the fire, rallied again and erected a new 
house of worship on Michigan Avenue, between Fourteenth and 
Sixteenth streets. Among the Eabbis who officiated in this con- 
gregation, we mention: A. J. Messing, M. Spitz, H. Gersoni. 

The third Jewish congregation which was founded in Chicago, 
is "Sinai Congregation" Its first meeting lor devotional pur- 
poses was held in June, 1851, in a temple situated on Monroe 
street, near LaSalle street, and in which the congregation contin- 
ued to worship until April, 1865, at which time they consecrated 
their new temple on the northwest corner of Van Buren street 
and Third Avenue. By the fire of 1871 this temple was laid in 
ashes. The congregation was then without a meeting house of 
their own for several years. But in April, 1875, they dedicated 
their new temple on the southwest corner of 21st street and In- 
diana Avenue — an imposing structure they still occupy. 

The Rabbis who officiated successively in this congregation, 
were: 1. Dr. B. Felsen thai ( 1861-1864 ). 2. Dr. 1/ Chro- 
nik (1866-1871; from 1861 to 1865 the ofice was vacant). 3. 
Dr. K. Koliler (1871-1879). 4. The present incumbent, Dr. 
E. G. Ilirsch (since September, 18S0). 

Another congregation, the fourth one in chronological order, 



The Jews of Chicago. C33 

was established by Israelites residing in the West Division, in 
1864. It was chartered under the name, Zion Congregation. 
Its first divine service was held in September, 1864, and the first 
temple it occupied was situated on Desplaines street, between 
Washington and Madison streets. (The building had originally 
been a Baptist church, and had been sold to the young Jewish 
congregation.) In 1869 the congregation disposed of their tem- 
ple which they then possessed, and erected a new structure in a 
more suitable location, to wit, on the southeast corner of Jackson 
and Sangamon streets. Dr. Felsenthal was invited to fill the 
Rabbi's chair in this congregation as soon as it had organized (in 
1864), and he still occupies the office. 

In 1867 "The North Side Hebrew Congregation" now wor- 
shiping in a rented locality on Dearborn Avenue, east of Wash- 
ington Park, was established. Previous to the great fire, this 
congregation had a temple on Ohio street, near Wells street, but 
the fire destroyed it. A. Norden, w r ho was the first minister of 
this congregation, but who became deprived of his situation in 
consequence of the conflagration, was elected some years ago 
by his congregation as their Rabbi, and is still officiating as 
such. 

During the last ten years a number of other Jewish congrega- 
tions have been built, and at present Chicago numbers thirteen 
chartered Jewish congregations. 

Coming now to charitable Jewish societies, it deserves to 
be mentioned that quite a number of them were in existence al- 
ready in earlier years. In 1859 the United Hebrew Relief As- 
sociation was founded, a society still existing, and affording aid and 
assistance to destitute, sick, and otherwise suffering persons, to 
widows and orphans, and so forth, and thereby doing a great deal 
of philanthropic work. Also many other charitable societies ex- 
ist, yet this IT. H. R. A. has maintained its place among the Chi- 
cago Israelites as the most favored society of its class, and by the 
liberality of the Jewish inhabitants of this place, it is enabled to 
spend annually considerable amounts of money for its noble pur- 
poses. In fact, most of the other benevolent societies regard 
themselves, in a certain sense of the word, as but branches or 
component societies of this institution. 

Its first president was Henry Greenebaum; at present Isaac 
Greensfelder presides over it. For several years pastF. Kiss acts 
as superintendent, and is daily on duty in behalf of this associa- 
tion. 

An hospital had been erected under the auspices of theU. H. R. 
A. in the year 1868, and was conducted on most liberal princi- 
ples. It was situated on La Salle street near Schiller street. But 



634 The Jews of Chicago. 

this hospital, too, fell a prey to the fire on October 9, 1871. At 
present a new Jewish hospital is being built on the Lake shore, 
foot of Twenty-ninth street. The TJ. H. E. A. has mainly been 
enabled to undertake the re-building of the hospital by the mu- 
nificence of the late M. Reese, of San Francisco, Cal., who in his 
last will bequeathed to the society the amount of $50,000, to be 
devoted towards the erection of such a hospital. 

Among this class of charitable societies, may also be counted a 
number of lodges of various Jewish orders. After the pattern 
of the Free Masons, Odd Fellows and similar orders, there were 
some Jewish orders formed in the United States, as for instance 
the Independent Order of IP nay Brith (Sons of the Covenant), 
the Indepe?ide?it Order of the Free Sons of Israel, the Kesher 
Shel Barrel (Iron League), all of which have philanthropic 
ends in view. All of these orders are represented in Chicago by 
a number of lodges. 

We must not omit to mention here that several Jewish socie- 
ties for literary purposes ( debating clubs and the like,) and for 
amusement, have at various times been established here. Of 
some prominence, in their time, were the Concordia Club and the 
Harmonia Club (not in existence,) the Standard Club (still ex- 
isting and flourishing,) the Zion Literary Society (also still pros- 
pering), and others. 

It remains to be mentioned that in several other cities in the 
Northwest Jews have settled in more or less great numbers, and 
have formed congregations and other societies. So are line pros- 
perous Jewish congregations to be found in Milwaukee, St. 
Paul, Springfield, Quincy, Peoria, and there is hardly any village 
where not a few Israelites may be found, though their number may 
be too small to organize and to maintain a regular congregation. 

A grand institution towards which the Jews of the North- 
west all contribute, and which belongs to them in common, is the 
Jewish Orphan Asylum, in Cleveland. It is said to be one of the 
largest, best conducted, 'and best endowed institution of its kind 
in the United States. 



The New Jerusalem Church. G35 

THE NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH. 

BY DOCTOR ALVAN E. SMALL, OF CHICAGO. 

This is the name of the religious body which accepts the the- 
ological writings of Emanuel Sweden borg, and are properly 
known as Swedenborgians. Its members, however, do not assume 
to be followers of any man, but regard the Bible as the Word of 
God, and the true understanding of it as the only Christian rule 
of faith and practice. But they believe that now is the Second 
coming of the Lord — not in person but in spirit — in revealing 
the internal and spiritual sense of the Word of God; and that 
in Swedenborff's writings is revealed the true and uniform means 
of learning that sense; and that the revelations therein contained 
are addressed, not, like previous revelations, to the infancy and 
childhood, but to the manhood of the world; and hence all that 
a man is called upon to believe, in this Apocalyptical or J\ T ew Je- 
rusalem Dispensation of Divine Truth, he can see rationally and 
receive freely. 

The three essential doctrines of this church as declared in the 
constitution of the Illinois Association, which is the general body 
of the church in Illinois, are as follows: 

1. God is one in essence and in person, in whom is a Divine 
Trinity, and He is the Lord God, the Savior Jesus Christ. 

2. The "Word, or Sacred Scripture, is Divine Truth itself. It 
is written according to the correspondence of natural with spirit- 
ual and celestial things; and it thus contains three distinct senses, 
the Celestial, the Spiritual, and the Natural, which are adapted 
to all the various states of angels and men, and it is the Divine 
Medium by which men are associated with angels, and by which 
angels and men are conjoined with the Lord. 

3. The Lord alone is the source of Genuine Life, the precepts 
of which are the Ten Commandments; these precepts are to be 
obeyed by man as of himself, with the acknowledgment that the 
will and the power to do them are of the Lord alone; and thus 
men are regenerated and saved by the Lord, by means of a life 
according to His precepts. 

The last clause in that Constitution is as follows: 
" This Association regards the payment of a part of the in- 
come of each member for the advancement of the uses of the 
Church, as a proper and necessary acknowledgment that we re- 
ceive every blessing from the Lord, and expects that all its mem- 
bers will contribute to the funds of the Association, as the Lord 
shall give them ability." 

This association was formed at Canton, Fulton county, June 



636 The New Jerusalem Church. 

3d, 1839, under a call issued in that year by the three gentlemen 
whose names are subscribed to it, the first residing in Chicago, 
and the two latter in the vicinity of Canton. It was as follows: 

To the Receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jeru- 
salem in the State of Illinois: 

Dear Brethren: — Believing that the time has come for the 
Receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines in this State to take more 
decided measures to co-operate with the Divine Providence in 
disseminating the doctrines of the JSTew Dispensation, we respect- 
fully invite you to assemble at Canton, Fulton county, on Satur- 
day and Sunday, the 6th and 7th days of July next, at 10 
o'clock, A. M. 

The object of the meeting is to bring our scattered energies to- 
gether, by forming acquaintance with eacli other, and thereby 
extending the social sphere of the church, and to take such steps 
as may be deemed essential, in our isolated condition, to enable us 
to come more fully into order. 

It is earnestly desired that every receiver who can conveniently 
attend will not fail to be present, and such as cannot be present 
will communicate to the meeting by letter on the following sub- 
jects: 

The residence of the receiver; the number of ISTew Church 
books in possession; the number of receivers and readers in the 
vicinity; the names of persons to whom communications may 
be addressed; the disposition to contribute towards obtaining a 
New Church minister to visit and preach at the various places 
where there are receivers in this State; and such other informa- 
tion as may be deemed of interest to the church. 

J. Young Scammon, 
Jonas Rawalt, 
John F. Randolph. 

June 3d, 1839. 

Communications to the meeting should be addressed to Jonas 
Rawalt, Canton, Fulton county. 

Pursuant to the above invitation, a meeting of the Receivers 
of the Heavenly Doctrines was opened in the College Building, 
in Canton, on Saturday, July 6th. 

John F. Randolph, of Fulton county, was elected President, 
and J. Young Scammon, of Chicago, Secretary of the meeting. 

After the meeting was organized, the service of the church was 
read by the President, and the Lord's Prayer read. 

Communications were received and read from Mr. Charles G. 
McGraw, of St. Louis, Mo.; Mr. Elisha Taber, of Springfield, 
Sangamon Co.; A. D. Wright, Esq., of Petersburg, Menard Co.; 






The Neio Jerusalem Church. 637 

E. N. Powell, Esq., of Peoria, Peoria Co.; Mrs. Nancy Harlan, 
of Darwin, Clark Co.; F. B. Murdock, Esq., of Alton j Madison 
Co.; Mrs. Betsey Adams, of Charleston, Peoria Co.; all of them 
expressing much interest in the objects of the meeting. 

On Sunday morning divine service was performed, and the 
articles of faith read from the book of worship, after which an 
address, explanatory of what is meant by the New Jerusalem 
Church, was delivered by one of the brethren, J. Young Scam- 
mon. 

At this meeting, the following officers were elected: 

John F. Eandolph, of Canton, President; Caleb North, of 
Rochester, Peoria Co., Secretary; Jonas Pawalt, of Canton, 
Treasurer; E. N. Powell, of Peoria; J. Young Scammon, of Chi- 
cago, additional members of the Executive Committee. 

There was no meeting of the Association in 1840, as the ser- 
vices of a minister could not be obtained; but in 1841 the Kev. 
Lemuel C. Belding, of Pennsylvania, was sent out as a mission- 
ary by the then Central Convention, and visited Canton, and 
helped to form a small Society there; and in 1842 the Eev. 

F. O. Prescott, of the Western Convention, subsequently known 
as O. Prescott Hiller, visited Illinois, and preached and admin- 
istered the sacraments at the meeting of the Association. 

The Rev. John Randolph Hibbard came to Illinois at the in- 
vitation of the Association, in 1843, and remained as its general 
minister or superintendent until 1879, when, having removed 
to Detroit, Michigan, he ceased to be connected with the Associ- 
ation. While acting as such general minister, he became suc- 
cessively minister of the Canton, Peoria and Chicago Societies; 
and the Church in this State has grown up and been organized 
chiefly under his superintendence. 

A very few, perhaps ten or a dozen, receivers of the Heavenly 
Doctrines, as they usually style themselves, had been found in 
very scattered or isolated places for some years before the first 
meeting of the Association, particularly in the vicinity of Peoria 
and Canton, and individual receivers lived in Clarke, Sanga- 
mon and Madison Counties, but there were not probably more 
than fifteen or twenty in the whole State. 

The history of this body of professed Christians in Chicago 
dates from the arrival of J. Young Scammon as a future resident, 
in September, 1835. He was the first known receiver in the 
northern part of the State of Illinois. 

Holding with Swedenborg, that an individual man who is re- 
ceptive of the Divine Love and Wisdom, which constitute the 
essential church, is an external church in its least form, he im- 
mediately commenced, as such church, " solitary and alone," to 



638 The JS T evj Jerusalem Church. 

hold New Church worship in his office. The next year lie became 
acquainted with and introduced the doctrines of the New Church 
to Mr. Vincent S. Lowell, then a young merchant in Chicago, who 
received the same, and united with Mr. Scammon in his Sunday 
worship. 

In 1837 Mr. Scammon was married to Miss Mary Ann H. 
Dearborn, of Bath, Maine, who was also a receiver of these doc- 
trines, and soon after he brought his wife to Chicago, rooms for 
their accommodation having been secured in the City Hotel, 
then located on Clark street, where the new Sherman House now 
stands. Sabbath morning worship was then conducted in his 
private parlor, and those interested were invited to attend. 
In 1838, Mr. Scammon removed into his dwelling on Clark 
street, opposite the public square, where religious worship was 
continued on the Sabbath, as usual, until he removed into a house 
erected by him on the corner of Michigan avenue and Randolph 
street, in which the regular services were for some time con- 
ducted. Alter a while they were changed to his office in the 
Saloon Building, at that time situated on the southeast corner of 
Lake and Clark streets; afterwards to the Common Council 
chamber, adjoining Mr. Scammon's office, and then to a large 
room in the next story, and tin ally to the Saloon Hall itself, as 
members increased and more room was needed. The attendance 
was never large. 

On the 7th of September, 1843, J. Young Scammon and his 
wife, Mary Ann H. Scammon, and Yincent S. Lovell, formed 
themselves into a legal religious society, and assumed the name 
of "The Chicago Society of the New Jerusalem." 

The urgent reason for this legal organization at that time was 
to secure the donation of a lot for church purposes from the 
State, under the law in relation to towns laid out on the Illinois 
and Michigan Canal. This law provided that a church lot should 
be donated to each regularly constituted religious society, in 
every town laid out by the State on the line of the canal, on 
canal lands. The provisions of this act were to be in force in 
Chicago only till the termination of that year. By virtue of the 
existence of "The Chicago Society of the New Jerusalem," al- 
though composed of but three members, and through the agency 
of Mr. Scammon, the lot 76x171 feet, on the northeast corner 
of "Wabash avenue and Adams street, was seasonably secured 
for the future use of the church. 

The society continued to meet for social and religious worship 
in the Saloon Building, gradually increasing in numbers. It was 
deemed expedient to adopt rules and regulations for carrying on 
its business and providing for the orderly increase of members. 



The New Jerusalem Church. 639 

Accordingly, on the 25th of March, 1847, the first annual meet- 
ing of the Society was held in Mr. Scammon's office. 

The Society adopted for its platform of union the three essen- 
tials of the church, as contained in No. 259 of Emanuel Sweden- 
borg's Treatise on the Divine Providence, viz: 

" The acknowledgment of the Divine of the Lord. 

"The acknowledgment of the Sanctity of the Word, and 

"The life which is called Charity." 

This declaration had been signed September 7th, 1843, by J. 
Young Scaramon, Mary Ann IT. Scammon and Vincent S. 
Lovell. 

At the meeting held March 25, 1847, or on that day, "William 
E. Jones, of the firm of Ogden, Jones & Co., Jos. K. C. For- 
rest and John E. Wheeler, two of the original proprietors of the 
Chicago Tribune, John Sears, Jr., Franklin Scammon, Thomas 
L. Forrest, George R. Bills, and Professor James V. Z. Blaney, of 
the Rush Medical College, signed the declaration and platform 
and became members. It was also voted, at this meeting, "That 
any person invited by the Executive Committee, might become 
a member by signing the above declaration." 

J. Y. Scammon and Vincent S. Lovell were the first trustees 
of the Society, and it appears from the records that no others were 
appointed till the meeting of February 25, 1849, and then, after 
a more extensive organization, J. Y. Scammon, W. E. Jones and 
George P. Bills, were made the Executive Committee; who with 
James Y. Z. Blaney, John Sears, Jr., John E.Wheeler and Hugh 
G. Clark were made trustees. Thos. L. Forrest was appointed 
Secretary, Franklin Scammon, Treasurer, and J. K. C. Forrest 
was elected Leader, whose duty it was to lead in worship on the 
Sabbath. 

At this meeting the trustees were authorized to lease the church 
lot for a period not exceeding five years, and the Executive Com- 
mittee was authorized to act in behalf of the Society in the recess 
between its meetings, and to take measures to establish a new 
church library. It was also voted at this meeting that the an- 
nual meeting should take place on the 2nd Monday of April, and 
that the fiscal year should end on the jirsto£ the same month. 

There appears to be no record of any other meeting until the 
annual meeting on the 9th of April, 1849. But during the in- 
terim religious services had been conducted at the usual place in 
the Saloon Building, by J. K. C. Forrest. Public lectures were 
also given by Rev. Geo. Field. 

Early in February, 1849, the Society numbered 21 members, 
who were unanimous in the desire of being consecrated as a 
church, and, for the purpose of carrying out this desire, they in- 



640 The New Jerusalem Chureh. 

vited the Rev. J. R. Hibbard, an Ordaining Minister of the New 
Jerusalem, to visit Chicago. It appears from the records that 
he did so, and consecrated the Society as a church; or rather that 
he met the Society on the 25th day of February, 1849, three mem- 
bers only being absent, at the residence of J. Y. Scammon, at the 
corner of Michigan avenue and Randolph street, and did then 
and there, by appropriate services, consecrate the same as a re- 
ligious societ} T , and in accordance with the authority committed 
unto him as an Ordaining Minister of the New Church in the 
United States, he recognized it as a regularly instituted society 
thereof. 

The correspondence and proceedings of Feb. 25 were duly re- 
ported and recorded at the annual meeting which followed, April 
9, 1849. 

It appears that Rev. J. R. Hibbard was present by invitation 
at this annual meeting, and opened it for business by reading a 
portion of the Divine Word and prayer — a precedent which has 
since been observed in all the meetings of the Society. At 
this meeting there was the usual election of officers, witli the 
exception of leader, which office was abolished, and the time of 
holding the annual meeting was changed to the second Monday 
of January, and the ending of the fiscal year to January 1st, of 
each year. 

The Executive Committee was authorized to invite Rev. J. R. 
Hibbard to become pastor of the Society, and to make such 
provisions for his support as might be deemed necessary. 

It was also voted at this meeting that a record of the baptisms 
and marriages in the Society be kept, and that all children so 
baptized be regarded as junior members thereof, and for whose 
spiritual education it was made the duty of the Society to pro- 
vide. 

In accordance with the authority given the Executive Com- 
mittee, an invitation was extended to Rev. J. R.JIibbard to take 
the pastoral charge of the Society, at a salary of $500 a year, or 
in that proportion for any fraction of the year he might serve. 
Mr. Hibbard responded favorably to the invitation, and took up 
his residence with the Society, and himself and wife united with 
the same, January 1st, 1850. 

The Society at this date numbered twenty-six members, and 
probably as many more, not members, attended the meetings for 
public worship. From the first formation of the Society, in 1843, 
and even prior to this event, until Rev. Mr. Hibbard accepted the 
Society's invitation to become its pastor, its finances were based 
upon voluntary contributions. Mr. J. Y. Scammon being the 
first to take an interest in disseminating the doctrines of 



The New Jerusalem Church. 641 

the New Church, furnished at his own expense the various 
places occupied by the Society for worship, and for the transac- 
tion of its business, and procured and kept for sale the writings 
of Swedenborg, until the church rooms were procured in a build- 
ing erected by Mr. Harrison Kewhall, at the north-east corner of 
Dearborn and Randolph streets, and fitted up as a place for pub- 
lic worship. 

In addition to this generosity, Mr. Scaramon subscribed lib- 
erally at all times for the replenishing of the treasury, and keep- 
ing the Society free from debt. 

The pastor labored successfully for the interests of the Society, 
and preached most of the time on Sabbath mornings in the Saloon 
Building, till some time in 1851, when the church rooms were 
secured and fitted up on the corner of Dearborn and Randolph 
streets. In this new place for worship quite a large congregation 
attended the public services on the Sabbath, and it became quite 
apparent that Mr. Hibbard's labors were not only satisfactory to 
the Society, but eminently efficient in spreading a knowledge of 
the Heavenly Doctrines. A library had been established, and 
from this source general New Church reading had been provided. 
At the annual meeting, held January 12, 1852, the treasurer re- 
ported that the Society was in a healthy financial condition, its 
debts all paid, and a small balance in the treasury. 

At the annual meeting held Jany. 11, 1850, a committee on 
music was appointed to superintend this department of public 
worship, and to effect its introduction, wheu they thought best, 
into the regular exercises of the Sabbath. It was voted in 1852, at 
the annual meeting, that the pastor or any member of the Execu- 
tive Committee might consider himself a representative of the 
Society in any general body of the church, when not otherwise 
specially represented. 

It does not appear on the records when the Society first pro- 
vided a Sunday School. The first time mentioned is in the rec- 
ords of the meeting of the Executive Committee March 25,1852, 
when thirty dollars were appropriated for a Sunday School Li- 
brary. 

In the fall and winter Rev. B. F. Barrett delivered a course of 
lectures on Sunday evenings to crowded houses in the new church 
rooms, and also supplied the pulpit when the pastor was absent 
as a missionary and superintendent of the Illinois Association. 
From a resolution recorded on March 6th, 1853, it would appear 
that Mr. Barrett's labors were highly appreciated and approved 
of by the Societ\ T . 

The Illinois Association, of which the Chicago Society and its 
members had from the first been a part, had held up to this time 
41 



642 The New Jerusalem Church. 

two annual sessions in the church rooms in Chicago, and it was 
voted this year, 1852, to invite the General Convention of the 
New Church in the U. S. to meet in Chicago in June, 1853. 

It met here, and its sessions were held in Newhall's Hall, be- 
fore referred to, and subsequently, in the years 1860, 1865, 1871, 
the General Convention has been held in Chicago. 

From Newhall's Hall the Society removed to a schoolhouse, 
purchased by it, on the north side of Adams street, between 
Wabash avenue and State street, and caused a school, kept by Mr. 
H. O. Snow, a New churchman, to be established there. The 
Society remained there until the winter of 1857, when the build- 
ing was destroyed by fire. From thence it removed to an old 
church building which had been originally built by the Second 
Presbyterian Church, and had been removed to Harrison street, 
which was purchased by the Society and occupied by it until it 
built its new and commodious stone temple on Adams street, on 
the lot secured by Mr. Scammon in 1843, as before stated. 

It remained here until the great fire of October 9, 1871, de- 
stroyed it, together with a mission church building which it had 
placed upon a lot at the junction of Clark and LaSalle streets, 
opposite Lincoln Park. This temple was a very convenient build- 
ing, containing, beside the church proper, a basement room for 
social meetings, a pastor's study and library room, and a residence 
for the janitor. The Society had great prosperity, pecuniarily 
and otherwise. 

Through the Rev. John II. Pagatoz, a German congregation 
and society were established and church built in the northwest 
part of the city, on Ashland avenue, just north of Chicago avenue, 
which is now used for worship by the German Society. 

It had also a mission church at the corner of Thirty- third 
street and South Park avenue, in which services were held until 
the building of the New Church Hall on Eighteenth street, near 
the corner of Prairie avenue. 

After the great fire the Society sold its church lot on Adams 
street, and with the proceeds purchased the property on Eight- 
eenth street, and a church lot at the corner of West Washington 
and Ogden avenues, and caused places of worship to be erected 
on them, and secured a residence for the pastor adjoining the 
Eighteenth street Hall. 

Mr. Hibbard's health failing, leave of absence was given him 
in 1871, and he went to Europe for his health. During his ab- 
sence, and for some time before, the Pev. Calvin Day Noble was 
employed to preach for the Society as Mr. Hibbard's assistant. 
On Mr. Hibbard's return thc;e was a division in the Society, a 
part of the congregation preferring Mr. Noble. These formed 



The New Jerusalem Church. 64-3 

themselves into a second society under Mr. Noble, but it was dis- 
solved shortly after Mr. Noble left, and it has now gone out of 
existence. 

The panic of 1873 completed the financial ruin of many 
of the leading members of the Society who had been greatly 
embarrassed by the great and subsequent fires, so that the Soci- 
ety was no longer able to support their pastor, and he was 
employed as the general missionary of the General Convention. 
In March, 1877, those members of the church who thought that a 
younger minister and more central place of worship were desir- 
able, formed a new society, called the Union Swedenborgian Soci- 
ety, invited the Rev. L. P. Mercer to become their pastor, and 
established worship in Hershey Hall, on Madison street, between 
State and Dearborn streets, where he has preached since and is 
now preaching. 

Worship and Sunday School are kept up in the North and 
West side places of worship, the Rev. W. F. Pendleton actini- 
as minister. No regular worship has been had in Eighteenth 
street hall since Mr. Hibbard's resignation in 1877, although 
for a portion of the time Dr. A. E. Small has conducted the 
services, and Mr. O. L. Earler and others have preached there, 
and Sunday School has been maintained under the superintend- 
ence, first, of Miss Auanna E. Scammon, and subsequently of Mr. 
R. A.Keyes. 

From the beginning New Church books have been kept for 
sale, and New Church libraries maintained. The first books were 
placed, in 1838, in the book-store of Mr. S. F. Gale, the first book- 
seller in Chicago. The great fire of 1871 destroyed both a large 
stock of books kept for sale, and the New Church Library. A 
new supply was obtained, and the nucleus of a new library estab- 
lished on the three sides of the river, or in the three Divisions of 
the city, but the general embarrassments of the members of the 
Society have rendered all their efforts feeble, and very little has 
been accomplished. Many hope for a new state of things witli 
returning prosperity. 

It has been the aim of the Society to avoid incurring debts, 
and it has avoided them, except in obtaining places of worship. 
Debts have all been promptly paid off, except two for $5,000 
each, and interest and taxes on the two places of worship at 
Eighteenth street and West Washington avenue. It was not the 
intention to incur those, but unforeseen circumstances kept those 
debts upon our hands, the two buildings costing $10,000 more 
than was intended. 

The members hope soon to get out of debt, and keep out. 
The Society has always provided for its own poor. It has.al- 



"644 The New Jerusalem Church. 

ways recognized the duty of every one contributing to the sup- 
port of the church as the Lord should give him ability, and 
there has been a general, though not universal, endeavor to act 
up to this principle. 

Of the members of the Society who signed the original articles 
of association, only Mr. J. Young Scammon is living. He oc- 
cupies his law office in the building at the southeast corner of 
Lake and Clark streets, where he had his office forty-four years 
ago, in 1836. Of those who have gone, Dr. Franklin Scammon 
and Mr. John Sears, Jr., remembered the Society in their wills. 
The executors of the latter paid over 10 per cent, of the estate 
to the society. 

The Society cannot be said to be a proselyting community. It 
considers that it is its duty to provide means for making known 
the doctrines of the New Church, and instructing those who de- 
sire such instruction. The members of the old Board of Trus- 
tees have generally been re-elected, and Mr. Scammon was chair- 
man of its Executive Committee until he was left out of the 
board, in 1877, at his request. 

But a vacancy occurring, an urgent and unanimous request 
was presented to him to resume his membership, which he con- 
sented to do upon the condition that he should not be expected to 
attend its meetings when it was not convenient for him to do so. 
On his retirement, Dr. Alvan E. Small was elected Chairman, 
and Alexander Officer Yiee-Chairman, which positions they con- 
tinue to hold. Mr. R. A. Keyes is Secretary, and Mr. Olof Ben- 
ton Assistant Secretary. The Treasurer is Mr. Will et Northup, 
who has held that office for many years. He is also Treasurer of 
the Illinois Association. These gentlemen, together with J. 
Young Scammon, Robert E. Moss, ¥m. A. Barton, James M. 
Hill, H. S. Maynard and Orlando Blackman, constitute the Execu- 
tive Committee, which has charge of the affairs of the Society. 

The action of the Society has usually been very harmonious, 
and a willingness to abide for the time being by the decision of 
the majority has generally, if not always, been expressed, while 
the wishes and feelings of the minority have always been re- 
spected. 



Early Chicago Methodism. 645 



EARLY CHICAGO METHODISM. 

BY REV. ARTHUR EDWARDS, D. D. 

Civil records show that in 1831 Chicago contained but about a 
dozen families. The inevitable and indefatigable Methodist 
preacher was not far off. Church records show that in 1831 the 
old Illinois Conference had a Sangamon district, in which there 
was a " Chicago Mission." In the year last named Rev. Jesse 
Walker was appointed missionary to Chicago. This sainted ec- 
clesiastical " Pathfinder," even in 1831, had already seen twenty- 
nine years of border service as a minister of the Gospel. In 
1806, under the leadership of William McKendree, who was 
afterwards a bishop, Walker entered Illinois as a missionary to 
the entire territory. These two devoted men traveled the un- 
broken wilderness between Kentucky and the heart of Illinois on 
horseback. They slept under their saddle-blankets beneath the 
smiling skies, and cooked their own meals in true pioneer style. 
Sometimes, perhaps, they thought the stars smiled grimly, 
for it is recorded there was much rain, rivers were overflowing, and 
during the journey their horses swam the swollen streams, while the 
riders carried their garments and Bibles across in their hands, 
raised high above their saddles. McKendree tarried a few weeks 
and . returned to Kentucky. Walker remained alone, and by 
constant itinerating and camp meetings, succeeded in his noble 
work as he was accustomed to do. The fruits of his labor, and of 
the few who aided him in the ministry, is attested by the form- 
ation of the Illinois Conference in 1816. This conference, it is 
characteristically said, "had no boundary on the west, included 
the last Methodist cabin toward the setting sun, and took in all 
Missouri and Illinois, and the western half of Indiana." 

They tell us that this tireless Jesse Walker had met Daniel 
Boone in Kentucky. Dr. Abel Stevens, the Methodist histori- 
an, says that Walker " was to the Church what Boone was to 
the early settler — always first, always ahead of everbody else, pre- 
ceding all others long enough to be the pilot of the new-comer. " 
Somewhere in the tide of pure, bounding blood that has nour- 
ished Chicago into a hardy metropolis, there throbs the pulse 
in church life which Jesse Walker stimulated when he came to 
the village in 1831. He lived here in that year, and when he 
was away on duty at distant points, his pulpit was filled by 
William See, the United States blacksmith, at the Chicago post, 
who had once been a minister in the Illinois conference. These 



646 Early Chicago Methodism. 

two ministers, and Mrs. Col. R. J. Hamilton, were the first of 
Chicago Methodists. 

In 1832 a Mission district was formed, of which Jesse "Walker 
was the presiding elder. Rev. Stephen R. Beggs, who yet sur. 
vives, was pastor of Chicago station in that mission district. 
In 1833 Walker was both at the head of the district and pastor 
of " Chicago Mission." In that .year the first quarterly con- 
ference was held in the " Watkins School-house," at the corner of 
North La Salle and Water streets. At the Lord's table during 
this quarterly meeting, there were present: William See and 
Henry Whitehead who were local preachers, Mrs. See, Charles 
Wisencraft and wife, Father Noble, Mrs Col. R. J. Hamilton 
and Mrs. Harriet Harmon. Mr. Whitehead, who survives, is a 
superannuated member of the present Rock River conference. 
In 1834 the first Methodist u class" was formed, and Charles 
Wisencraft was appointed "Class Leader." These worshipped 
in Indian Chief Billy Caldwell's log council house on the North 
Side, not far from the corner of Franklin and Water streets, or 
in Ingersoll's tavern, on the west side of the river, between Ful- 
ton and Lake streets, or in a building on the North Side, be- 
tween LaSalle and Clark streets. 

The first church was built in 1834, by Henry Whitehead and 
John Stewart. The original contract is in Mr. Whitehead's 
possession. The brief document provides for a " frame building, 
twenty- six feet by 38; 12 feet posts; sheeted and shingled 
roof; seats with broad backs, and a rail of separation down the 
middle; a neat pulpit; a platform for a table and chairs; the 
whole to be done in a workman-like manner, " and for the sum 
of $580. The contract bears the autograph of Jesse Walker, who 
agrees to accept; " these propositions given by Messrs. White- 
head & Stewart, on the part of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
signed June 30, 1834." The house was duly erected on the 
north side, at the corner of Clark and Water streets. The aged 
Jesse Walker became superannuated in 1834, and died in holy 
triumph in October of 1835. In 1834 Rev. J. T. Mitchell be- 
came pastor, and the church was strengthened. In 1836, the lots 
at the corner of Clark and Washington streets were purchased 
through Robinson Tripp, who survives as a member of the 
church, now standing on them. 

In the fall of 1836^0. T. Curtis became pastor, but in the finan- 
cial crash of the following year, loss, scandal, and overbearing 
moral pressure, tested the church cruelly in common with the en- 
tire city and country. Men remember to this day the devout 
and devoted Peter R. Borein, who was sent as pastor in the 
autumn of 1837. A. year later a revival began under the labors 



Early Chicago Methodism. 647 

of this good man, and so greatly did the interest affect all classes, 
that three hundred, or about one-tenth of the entire population 
of the young city joined old Clark St. Church. Mr. Borein died 
soon after, and his last sermon is spoken of till this day. In the 
winter between 1837 and 1838, the church was moved over on 
the ice from the North side to the lots purchased in 1836, as 
stated. The house was enlarged to twice its original size. In 
1839 S. Stocking became pastor, and he was followed by Hooper- 
Crews, who served in 1840 and 1841, and who is still at work in 
the Rock River Conference. During his pastorate, the house 
was again enlarged as before. In 1842, under the pastorate of 
N. P. Cunningham, the church again became too small. In 
1843 Rev. Luke Hitchcock, still living, was appointed pastor, and 
a colony from the old church, under the pastorate of Abram 
Hanson, built a church on Canal Street. This colony afterwards 
became Jefferson Street church, and, later, Centenary church. 

In 1844 Win. M. D. Ryan became pastor of Clark St., with 
Warren Oliver as assistant. Revivals followed, and the often 
enlarged house became too small acrain. A new building that 
cost 1>12,000 was dedicated in November, 1845. In 1846 
Chauncey Hobart was pastor. In 1847 " Indiana street " church 
was set off from Clark St., and the colony is now identified as 
" Grace Church." Rev. Pliilo Judson was pastor at the " old 
hive " in this year. In 1848 Richard Haney was sent to Clark 
St. 

and he was returned in 1S49. Rev. Stephen F. Keyes followed 
in 1850; Rev. John Clark in 1S52; Rev. Hooper Crews in 1854; 
Rev. James Baume in 1856; Rev. TV". F. Stewart in 1858; Rev. 
O. H. Tiffany in 1860; Rev. F. D. Hemenway in 1865; Rev. C. 
II. Fowler in 1863; Rev. TV. C. Dandy in 1866; Rev. J. A. 
Gray in 1867; Rev. W. H. Daniels in 1869; Rev. H. TV. Thom- 
as in 1872; Rev. S. A. W. Jewett in 1875; Revs. M. M. Park- 
hurst and W. A. Spencer in 1876; and in 1879, Rev. J. "Wil- 
liamson. 

In 1858, under a charter, a new " church block " was erected 
for the mother society at Clark street, at a cost of $70,000. The 
plan was to build a business block, in which stores and offices 
were to yield rents for the support of the church on the third 
floor. Notwithstanding the panic of 1857 and 1858, the trustees 
funded the debt of $70,000, paid taxes and insurance, and carried 
the project through. In 1865 the noble trustees began to aid 
sister Methodist Churches in the citj r , and few now existing have 
failed to secure help. From 1865 to 1871, the board had extended 
aid to the extent of over §70,000, the original cost of the first 
" block." This building perished in the fire of October, 1871, but 



648 Early Chicago Methodism. 

was replaced by a new one that cost $120,000, in 1872. The re- 
building was made, possible by insurance on the old building, of 
$65,600, and funds, given by Methodists to the lire fund, to the 
extent of $10,000. This "old Clark Street" Block is known 
all through the Church, and it has made a fragrant memory for 
itself. The grand men who were trustees under the charter of 
1857, were Grant Goodrich, J.K. Botsford, Wm. Wheeler, Orring- 
ton Lunt, J. Y. Farwell, J. W. Waughop and John Hayward. 
All survive save Mr. Wheeler. 

It is impossible to give space to detailed histories of many 
churches which have been colonized from the original church, or 
from its derivatives. A table at the end of this chapter will 
name them, and include the major items relating to their present 
status. Each church has its shining record of devout men and 
women. All are active and charateristically useful. The 
denomination has been an important factor in the city's history, 
and to this hour it is grateful to co-work with sister denomi- 
nations in promoting the best interests of mankind. 

Among the most heroic, self-denying and successful ministers 
and churches are those of the German, and the various Scandi- 
navian component parts of the Methodist Churches working in 
the city. They are represented in the tables given below. No 
pen can duly estimate the good they have done and are doing 
among the populations most directly concerned. Their work is 
very successful. 

The Germans read the Apologist, edited by Dr. W. Nast, in 
Cincinnati, and the Swedes the Sandebudet, Chicago, edited suc- 
cessfully by Y. Witting, !N". O. Westergren, and Dr. Wm. Hen- 
schen. The Chicago Depository, a branch of the Western Meth- 
odist Book Concern, was established in 1852. It purchased val- 
uable property at 66 Washington St., which was exchanged after 
the great lire of 1871, for other property at 57 Washington St. 
Bev. Luke Hitchcock, D. D., whose name has already baen men- 
tioned in this sketch, and who for twenty years served as an agent 
of the Book Concern, has lived in Chicago and has done much to 
make the Western Concern and the Chicago Depository a success. 
Bev. Drs. J. M. Walden and W. P. Stowe are the present agents. 
The Northwestern Christian Advocate was established as an or- 
gan of the church, in Chicago, in 1852. Bev. J. Y. Watson, D. D., 
was editor until 1856. Bev. T. M. Eddy, D. D., followed as 
editor in 1856 and served until 1868. In that year Bev. J. M. 
Beid, D. D., became editor, and in 1872 Bev. Arthur Edwards, 
D. D., (who had served as assistant editor from 1864) was elected 
editor, and he is now serving as such. The paper has a circula- 
tion larger than that of any Evangelical church in the West, 



Early Chicago Methodism. 049 

save one, and that belongs to the Methodist Church, and is pub- 
lished in Cincinnati. 

The following statements relate to Methodist Episcopal 
Churches situated within the present city limits. The year of 
the appointment of the first pastor expresses approximately the 
date of the organization of the respective Churches : 

Chicago Mission (now First Church, or " Old Clark Street") 
Autumn of 1830, Jesse Walker; 1831, S. R Beggs; 1832, Jesse 
Walker; 1834, JohnT. Mitchell; 1836, O. F. Curtis; 1837, Peter 

E. Borien; 1839, S. H. Stocking; 1840, II. Crewes; 1842, K P. 
Cunningham; 1843, L. Hitchcock and A. Hanson; 1844, W. M. 
D. Ryan and W. Oliver; 1846, C. Hobart; 1847, P. Judson; 
1848, R. Haney; 1850, S. P. Keyes; 1852, John Clark; 1854. 
Hooper Crews ;1856, James Baume; 1858, W. F. Stewart; 1860, 
O. H. Tiffany; 1862, F. D. Hemenway; 1863, C. H. Fowler; 
1866, W. C. Dandy; 1867, J. W. Gray; 1869, W. H. Daniels; 
1872, H. W. Thomas; 1875, S. A. W. Jewett; 1876, M. M. 
Parkhurst and W. A. Spencer; 1879 John Williamson. 

Canal St. — Next " Jefferson St; " and now " Centenary." — 
1845, Sius Bolles; 1847, Harvey S. Brunson; 1848, R. A. Blan- 
chard; 1850, Win Palmer; 1852, James E. Wilson and Win. 
Keegan; — Jefferson St. — 1853, E. H. Gammon; 1854, Sius Bol- 
les; 1855, J. F. Chaffee; 1857, S. P. Keyes; 1858, R. J.White; 
1859, W. McKaig; 1861, C. H. Fowler; 1863, Kobert Bentley; 
1864, Chas. Shelling:; 1865, supplied;— Centenary— 1866, C. H. 
Fowler; 1867. P. M. Hatfield; 1870, C. H. Fowler; 1873, J. O. 
Peck; 1875, S. H..Ad.'.ms; 1877, H. W. Thomas; 1880, A. C. 
George. 

Indiana St. — (Grace.) — 1847, Freeborn Haney; 1848, John 

F. Devore; 1849, Zadok Hall; 1850, Boyd Lowe; 1851, John W. 
Agard; 1852, Sius Bolles; 1854, Thomas Williams; 1857, S. G. 
Lathrop; 1859, H. Whipple; 1861, L. II. Bugbee; 1863, J. C. 
Stoughton.— Grace.— 1864, O. H. Tiffany; 1867, A. J. Jutkins; 
187(£ M. M. Parkhurst; 1873, C. E. Felton; 1875, John Atkin- 
son; 1878, K. D. Sh'eppard. 

Trinity.— 1864, J. II. Vincent; 1865, Wm. A. Smith; 1866, 
S. A. W. Jewett; 1868, T. M.Eddy; 1869, J. H. Bayliss; 1871, 
S. McChesney; 1874, O. H. Tiffany; 1877, W. F. Crafts; 1879, 
K. B. Pope. 

State St.— Wabash Ave.— 1852, K P. Heath; 1853, F. A. 
Read; 1855, W. B. Slaughter;— Wabash Avenue — 1857, Wm. M. 
D. Rvan; 1859, W. Krebs; 1860, IT. Cox; 1862, R. L. Collier; 
1865," R. M. Hatfield; 1867, C. H. Fowler; 1870, R. M. Hatfield; 
1871, S. McChesney; 1872, J. F. McClelland; 1873, J. L. G. 
McKown; 1874, John Williamson; 1876, A. W. Patten; 1879 
F. W. Bristol. 



650 Early Chicago Methodism. 

Owen St.— Ada St.— 1853, S. Guyer; 1855, C. French; 1856, 
fin. Tasker; 1857, 1858 and 1859, supplied;— West Indiana St. 
—1860, Jacob Hartman; 1862, supplied; 1863, Wm. D. Skel- 
ton; 1866, Kobert Ben tly; 1868, J. Hartwell; 1869, W. F. Stew- 
art;— Ada St.— 1870, T. R. Strobridge; 1873, W. C. Dandy; 1874, 
J. I, G. McKown; 1875, J. M. Caldwell; 1877, S. H. Adams; 
1880, A. Gurney. 

Bridgeport. — Simpson Chapel. — 1862, Peter K. Rye; 1863, 
M. B. Cleveland; 1864, Joseph Wardle; 1865 and 1866, sup- 
plied; 1867, E. W. Fay ;— Simpson Chapel— 1868, W. Thatcher; 
1870, H. W. Scoville; 1871, H. Hill; 1874, A. Youker; 1877, 
J. H. Ailing. 

Dixon St.— 1870, T. P. Marsh; 1872, J. H. Thomas; 1873 
and 1874, supplied; 1875, E. C. Arnold; 1877, E. M. Boring. 

Des Plaines St.— Maxwell St. — St. Paul's. — 1857, H. 
Whipple; 1859, supplied; 1860, E. Stone; 1862, L .Hawkins; 
1863, E. M. Boring; 1864, T. L. Olmsted; 1865, S. Guyer;— 
Maxwell Street.— -1866, A. T. Keedham; 1868, E. W. Fay; 
1869, W. H. Burns; 1872, S. G. Lathrop; 1873, H. L. Martin; 

1876, A. Gurnev; 1877, T. P. Marsh; 1879, J. W. Phelps. 
Fulton St.— 1874, R. S. Cantine; 1876, S. M. Davis; 1877 

W. H. Holmes; 1879, Geo. Chase. 

Park Aye.— 1865, supplied; 1866, A. P. Mead; 1867, J. H. 
Bayless; 1869, II. W. Thomas; 1872, W. H. Daniels; 1874, K 
II. Axtell; 1876, S. McChesney; 1879, T. Strobridge. 

Wesley Chapel— Grant Place.— 1866, H. Whipple; 1867, 
M. H. Plumb; Grant Place: 1868, E.*M. Boring; 1869, C. G. 
Truesdell; 1871, E. M. Boring; 1872, S. C. Clendening; 1875, T. 
P. Marsh; 1878, F. P. Cleveland. 

Indiana Aye. — Michigan Aye. — 1869, Hooper Crews; 1870, 
R.D. Shepherd; 1873, J. W. Phelps; 1874, M. M. Parkhurst; 

1877, J. Williamson; 1879, G. R. Yanhorne. 

St. Johns. — Oakland. — Langley Aye. — 1869, C. E. Mande- 
ville; 1871, C. G. Truesdell; 1872, J. F. Yates; 1873, L. Mere- 
dith; 1875, W. C. Willing; 1877, T. C. Clendenning; 1880, R. 
M. Hatfield. 

Western Aye.— 1871, A. Youker; 1874, R. D. Shepherd; 
1877, S. H. Adams; 1878, J. M. Caldwell. 

State St.— 1872, J. G. Campbell; 1873, M. C. Stokes; 1875. 
W. A. Spencer; 1876, Ezra M. Boring; 1880, W. Thatcher. 

Halsted St.— 1872,. S. Washburn; 1874, H. Hill; 1876, W. 
Craven; 1879, F. A. Harding. 

Chicago City Mission.— 1855, Sins Bolles; 1856, 1857,1858 
and 1859, supplies; 1860, W. F. Stewart; 1861, supplied: 1862, 
J. W. Chadwick; 1863, H. Whipple; 1866, supplied; 1867 and 
1868, S. G. Lathrop; 1869, &c, supplies. 



Early Chicago Methodism. 651 

Winter St.— 1877, Geo. Chase; 1879, Wm. Craven. 

Emmanuel. — 1879, J. W. Richards. — Lincoln St. — Jackson 
St. — Asbury Chapel. — Northwest Church. — Milwaukee Ave. 
— Indiana St. are flourishing missions. 

GERMAN M. E. CHURCH. 

South Chicago German — Yan Buren St. — 1852, A. Kellner; 
1855, F. Schuler; 1856, H. F. Koeneke; 1857, C. Holl; 1859, L. 
Lass; 1861, F. Ropp; 1863, I. Lines; 1865, Chr. Loeber; 1867, E. 
Wunderleck; 1870, R. Fickencher; 1872, Chr. Loeber; 1875, 
supplied. 1877, C. F. Allert. 

South West German Mission. — 1872, P. Hinner; 1874, J. 
Blateh. 

Dayton St. — 1875, J. Berger. 

North Side German — Indiana Street. — Clybourne Avenue. 
—1852, Philip Barth; 1853, C. Wenz; 1854, L. Lass; 1855, 
J. H. Westerfeld; 1856, F. Kopp; — Clybourne Avenue. — 1857, 
J. Schafer; 1859; J. Haas, Jr.; 1860, F. Kluckholm; 1862, Wm. 
Plaffle; 1865, J. Blateh; 1868, G. L. Mulfinger; 1870, F. 
Kinder; 1873, supplied; 1874, J. W. Roecher. 1877, J. Schnell; 
1879, G. H. Simons. 

German City Mission — Buddan St. — 1870, G. H. Simons; 
Portland Street.— 1872, W. Keller; 1875, B. Lampert. 

West German — Maxwell Street. — 1855, Henry Senn; 1856, 
R. Fickencher; 1858, W. Winter; 1860, I. Lines; 1861, L. Lass; 
1863, P. Hinners; 1866, F. Fischer; 1868, R. Fickencher; 1S70.C.G. 
Becker; 1872, J. W. Roecher; 1874, G. L. Mulfinger; 1876, C. A. 
Loeber; 1879, F. Gottschalk. 

Reuben St.— Ashland Ave.— 1868, J. Blateh; 1869, P. Hin- 
ners; 1871, supplied; 1872, G. L. Mulfinger; 1874, F. Kinder; 1877, 
H. Wegner; 1879, J. Bletch; 1880, J. J. Keller. 

Emmanuel Church. — 1879, G. H. Simons; 1879, J. Schnell. 

Zion Mission.— 1877, H. Lemke; 1878, Wm. Karnopp; 1879, 
F. Meyer. 

SWEDISH M. E. CHURCHES. 

Swede Mission (afterwards May St.). — North Side. — 1853, S. 
B. Newman; 1855, Erick Shogren and N.Peterson; 1859, J. 
Bredburg; 1860, J. Bredburg and Eric Carlson; 1861, A. J. 
Anderson and Eric Carlson; 1864, supplied; 1865, N. O. Wes- 
tergren and V. Witting; 1868, Nels Peterson; 1870, A. J. 
Anderson; 1873, E. Shogren and Alfred Anderson ; 1875, — May 
Street.—^. O. Westergren and E. Shogren; 1877, D. S. ' Sorlin; 
1878, J. Wigren. 

Market St.— 1877, A. J. Andersen; 1879, D. S. Sorlin.— South 
Chapel. — Haven St. — F. Ahgren; 1878, N. O. Westergren. 



652 



Early Chicago Methodism. 



NORWEGIAN M. E. CHURCHES. 

Indiana St. — First Church. — 1877, A. Haagensen; 1878, J. 
H. Johnson. 

Division St. — Second Church. — 1S77, C. F. Eltzholts; 1878, 
J. De L. Thompson. 

PRESIDING ELDERS. 

A list of presiding elders of the district of which Chicago has 
been a part, is subjoined. Some of the names do not appear on 
other lists: 

Illinois Conference. — In 1831 and 1832 — Sangamon district: 
Peter Cartwright, Presiding Elder; in 1833, Simon Peter, P. E. 
In 1834 and 1835 — Chicago District: John Sinclair, P. E.; in 
1835, W. B. Mack, P. E.; 1836 to 1839, John Clark, P. E. 

In 1840 Rock River Conference was set off from the Illinois. 
JohnT. Mitchell was P. E. of Chicago district, 1840 to 1841; 
Hooper Crews, 1842 and 1843; James R. Goodrich, 1844; James 
Mitchell, 1845, 1846; John Chandler, 1847; Hooper Crews, 
1848; A. L. Risley, 1849, 1850; John Sinclair, 1851,1852,1853, 
1854; J. W. Agard, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858; Luke Hitchcock, 
1859; E. M. Boring, 1860, 1861, 1862; Stephen P. Keyes, 1863, 
1864; Hooper Crews, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868; Wm. C. Dandy, 
1,869, 1870, 1871, 1872; Andrew J. Jutkins, 1873, 1874, 1875, 
1876; William C. Willing, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880. 

The following figures, expressing the status in the autumn of 
1879, relate to Churches in the city limits. 

ENGLISH CHURCHES. 



Names of Churches. 



Clark Street 

Wabash Avenue,. 

Trinity, 

Michigan Avenue, 
Langley Avenue,. 

State Street, 

Grace 

Grant Place 

Centenary 

Ada Street, * 

Park Avenue, 

Western Avenue,, 

Fulton Street, 

Dixon Street, 

St. Paul's, 

Halsted Street,... 

Simpson, 

Emmanuel 

Jackson Street,.. . 
Winter Street, . . . 



Members and 
Probationers. 


Value of 
Church pro- 
perty. 


Teachers and 

Scholars in 

Sunday School. 




$123 000 


127 


208 


65 000 


335 


450 


150 000 


493 


425 


62 000 


721 


288 


20 000 


625 


100 


3 500 


175 


325 


85 000 


807 


330 


9 000 




825 


97 000 


806 


290 


60 000 


508 


325 




29S 


305 


10 000 


385 


195 


4 400 


381 


88 


2 500 


174 


302 


6 000 


303 


150 


50 (00 


847 


162 


1500 


190 


110 




147 


40 


3 200 


133 


87 


10 000 


I 180 



Early Chicago Methodism. 



653 



GERMAN CHURCHES. 



Cly bourne Avenue,. 
Maxwell Street, . . . 
Ashland Avenue,. . 
Portland Avenue,. . 
Emmanuel Church, 
Zion Mission, 



176 
257 
200 
122 
112 
30 



SWEDISH CHURCHES. 



Market Street, 
May Street, . . . 
Haven Street,. 



320 
290 
125 



$15 000 
10 500 
15 500 

5 000 

6 000 
1000 



$24 000 

14 000 

1000 



NORWEGIAN CHURCHES. 



First Church,. 
Second Church. 



312 
65 



|18 000 
2 500 



200 
349 
240 
171 
135 



290 

200 
60 



342 

80 



The Methodist Church has two important educational institu- 
tions at Evanston, Illinois. The Northwestern University was 
organized by charter in 1851. In 1853, Rev. Dr. C. T. Hinman 
was elected. President, and a faculty was formed. Dr. Hinman 
died in 1854, and Rev. Dr. R. S. Foster (now Bishop) was elected 
President in 1854. He resigned in 1860, and Rev. H. S. Noyes 
acted as President until his death in 1869. In that year Rev, 
Dr. E. O. Haven became President, and when he resigned in 
1872, Rev. Dr. C. H. Fowler was elected. Dr. Fowler was 
elected editor of the ~N. Y. Advocate in 1876, and Oliver Marcy, 
L. L. D., has since acted as President. The University has a 
foundation in real estate. The present site of Evanston em- 
braces about four hundred acres of land, a part of which has 
been sold to residents. This purchase money and rents consti- 
tute the income of the University. The entire valuation is about 
one million dollars, and the future of the schools is assured. The 
University has six departments: 1, Literature and. Science; 2, 
College of Literature and Arts (Woman's College); 3, College 
of Music; 4, College of Law (in Chicago); 5, College of 
Medicine (Chicago Medical College); 6, Preparatory School. 
The library has over 30,000 volumes. The six faculties includes 
about fifty professors The students number about 800 in all 
departments. The wisdom of the organization of the University 
is justly attributable to Hon. John Evans, Hon. Grant Good- 
rich, Orrington Lunt, Jabez K. Botsford and Rev. R. Haney. 
Rev. Philo Judson was long a wise agent and counsellor for the 
trustees. The institution holds a very high rank. 

The church has another important institution in Evanston, 111., 
for the education of young men for the Methodist ministry. 
Mrs. Eliza Garrett, wife of Augustus Garrett who was once 



654 Early Chicago Methodism. 

Mayor of Chicago, died in 1855, leaving about a quarter of a 
million dollars to found the Garrett Biblical Institute. The will 
was drawn by Hon. Grant Goodrich, and the institute was open- 
ed in 1856. Rev. Dr. John Dempster was the first President. 
Rev. Dr. D. P. Kidder, Rev. Dr. Henry Banmister, Rev. F. 
Johnstone, Rev. Dr. F. D. Hemenway, Rev. Miner Raymond, 
and Rev. Dr. W. X. Niucle (the present president), constitute 
the list of instructors. Mr. Johnstone served for a short time, 
and Dr. Kidder went to a similar institution in the East in 1871. 
The three years' course is exclusively biblical and theological. 
About two hundred and forty graduates and twelve hundred 
students have received instruction from the able faculty. Many 
graduates and students have gone abroad to mission service. 
Many conferences in the church, particularly in the northwest, 
Lave in their ranks earnest men who were educated in this Bib- 
lical Institute. Hon. Grant Goodrich, whose service in the parent 
Methodist Church in Chicago (Clark St. Church), and in the 
i^orthwestern University, has been noted, and Hon. Orrington 
Lunt, have given much of their lives and substance to the Insti- 
tute. These their good works will follow them. The Universi- 
ty and Institute both have good buildings. 

The sources of these data are historical lectures by Hon. 
Grant Goodrich, 1852; General Minutes of the Church; Stevens' 
History; John Stewart's " Highways and Hedges"; ' ; Metho- 
dism in Northwest," by Rev. S. R. Beggs; Peter Cartwright's 
Autobiography; Simpson's Cyclopedia of Methodism, and cur- 
rent papers. 



CENSUS OF CHICAGO FOR 1880, OBTAINED FROM THE RECORDS IN 
WASHINGTON IN ADVANCE OF THEIR PUBLICATION. 

The population of Chicago now appears to he 503,301 of whom 
257,027 are males, 246,274 females; 298,426 natives, 204,875 
foreign; 496,617 white; 6,475 colored, 16$ Chinese, 2 Japanese, 
37 Indians and 1 East Indian. This statement, is still subject to 
possible corrections, by reason of the discovery of omissions or 
duplications of names in the lists of inhabitants returned. 

Yery respectfully, 

Francis S. Walker, 

Superintendent. 



The Anti- Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 655 



HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION, AND THE GROWTH 

OF THE LIBERTY AND REPUBLICAN PARTIES 

IN THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. 

BY HON. Z. EASTMAN. 

I have been requested to write for this work some passages of his- 
tory bearing upon the late agitation of the anti-slavery question 
in the West, and its effects upon the fate of the nation. It is 
almost superfluous to state that it is a favorite doctrine of our peo- 
ple, that ours is a government of liberty; that liberty is the great 
boast of the nation, and the object and end of the struggles of 
our forefathers in making this country an asylum of the oppressed 
of all lands, and achieving finally national independence. Con- 
sequently, when the form of government first began to take shape, 
it was upon this declaration, which it was assumed was a self- 
evident truth, " that all men were then equal, and are endowed 
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are 
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The patriots of 
the revolution, who achieved their independence, were doubtless 
sincere believers in this truth. The}' had no mental reservations, 
that is, the most of them; and believed that the doctrine applied 
to black men and slaves, as well as to white men. They did not 
say, and they did not mean, that white men, when they combined 
to make a new government, were then equal, etc., as a distin- 
guished Senator from Illinois once stated they meant to say. 

It was very consistent with this doctrine, of the fathers of the 
Revolution that when the nation had received the bequest of a large 
area of territory which was by nature free from slavery, that they 
should have taken special pains to guarantee that state of free- 
dom for all future time. Negro slavery, they said, had been 
forced upon the colonies by the policy of the mother country; 
and as it was fonnd existing in all the original territories, they 
could see no other way but to leave it to time and Providence for 
its extirpation. But wherever the nation began new it would 
keep itself clear of this admitted curse. The nation had no ter- 
ritory of its own. It was all made up of the areas of the prov- 
inces or colonies that had entered into the Confederation which 
was formed to secure national independence. When it became a 
nation in fact, after the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 
1788, and the old Confederacy had been superseded, it was in a 
condition to inherit an estate. Consequently the States which 
held territory outside of their administrative limits, prospectively 



656 The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

or directly, were preparing to cede that territory to the nation as 
a body capable of inheriting and holding such an estate. And 
therefore Connecticut and Virginia set the example and relin- 
quished their jurisdiction over the vast regions of wild and un- 
cultivated lands in the Northwest, which they held by virtue of 
their colonial charters; Virginia ceded the larger part in a state 
of nature. Land unoccupied by civilized man, though full of the 
wealth of the forest and the mine, is as valueless as the waves on 
the ocean. So the Virginia territory of the Northwest was 
money-valueless to the State if it remained without popula- 
tion. Without impoverishing herself she gave to the nation the 
vast territory, and in so doing she gave it an empire. But she 
coupled with the gift the condition that it should be kept free for- 
ever from that curse of slavery that was already then beginning 
to prey upon her own vitals. Thus originated the Ordinance for 
the government of the Northwest territory, which was passed by 
Congress in 1787, as the condition of receiving the donation of 
the territory from Virginia. Art. 6 of the said ordinance pro- 
vides: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude 
in the said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." 

On the passage of this clause of the Ordinance, finally rested 
the fate of the nation. It was originally insisted upon (it is said), 
as a political and economical measure ; that to give to the land 
a marketable value, for the settlement of free and independent 
laborers and owners of the soil, it should be kept free from 
slavery. Whatever the motive, it has proved to have been in the 
largest degree, profitable and wise, and a controlling policy in 
the fate of the nation. It was in this sphere, and in the area 
of the Northwest territory, that the problem was solved that 
finally delivered the nation from the incubus of slavery. The 
consecration of the Northwest to freedom by the State of Vir- 
ginia, became the nucleus of the power that delivered the na- 
tion. The story of this achievement, to a large extent yet 
unwritten, except in the acts of men, is to form the chapter of 
history we are about to write. 

The Northwestern Ordinance, so called, was the ratification 
of the deed of cession for the territory locally defined as " lying 
within the United States, northwest of the Ohio River," and it 
declares that there should be formed in the said territory, not less 
than three and not more than five states. And in the territory 
was organized, as population rapidly increased, the five states of 
Ohio, Indiana, Illijiois, Michigan and Wisconsin. It then em- 
braced all the territory within the boundaries of the United 
States lying outside of special jurisdiction, for the Southern At- 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 657 

lantic States claimed that tlieir boundaries extended to tlie French 
and Spanish possessions at the West and South. In this "earlier 
and better day," we see that the policy was to make all national 
territory free, and not divide it as the Missouri Compromise in- 
dicated, into half free and half slave ; or make it all slave, as the 
Repealers of the Compromise evidently intended. 

Besides the exclusion of slavery from the territory, we may 
judge the tone of the times and the character of the instrument 
from such clauses as these: "All fines shall be moderate; and 
no cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted. No man shall 
be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the judgment of 
his peers or the law of the land. Should public exigencies make 
it necessary * * * to take any person's property, or demand 
his particular services, full compensation shall be made/' And 
better still: "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary 
to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and 
the means of education shall forever be encouraged." There 
ought to have been good government on such a charter. To this 
Northwest territory, under the impulse of freedom, came rap- 
idly an energetic and intelligent population, making homes and 
civil society on the fertile lands, which probably surpassed any 
other equal area on the face of the earth. It became the empire 
to which the moral and political power of the nation concen- 
trated. 

But there was a strong impulse to emigrate from the slave 
States to this region, as well as from the Northern States, which 
were fast throwing off the remnants of the slave system that had 
clung to them. Many of the people of the South came to the 
Northwest to get rid of slavery, but they often retained the 
prejudices in which they had been educated. There was, how- 
ever, a strong feeling among the early settlers that the slavery 
prohibition was acting detrimentally to the growth and develop- 
ment of the country of the Northwest, a section to which all 
eyes were turned, as since they have been turned to the lands be- 
yond the Mississippi and the Pacific Coast. There was not al- 
ways absolute faith in free labor in conflict with slave labor. 

There were many dissatisfied persons, who held public meet- 
ings, and memorialized Congress to obtain a removal of the re- 
striction for a limited time, that Southern planters might be 
induced to move into the territory with their slaves. A sort of 
quasi slavery was introduced in the name of apprentices, which 
gave a slave code to. Illinois, in spite of the slavery prohibition 
clause. So good a man as¥m. Henry Harrison was made presi- 
dent of a convention at Vincennes, Territory of Indiana, in 1804, 
the object of which was to promote territorial interests by ob- 
42 



658 The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

taming a modification of this organic law. We see now what 
was gained by holding fast to the right thing, against the popular 
drift and a short-sighted policy. The slavery prohibition clause 
was the vital element in the prosperity of the Northwest, when 
the tide of population finally had set in this direction. 

But there were many who had been trained in the notion that 
slavery was the only element of prosperity at the South, who 
were constantly harping on that one string — " Let slavery be in- 
troduced into the Northwest." At so late a time as 1839, 1840, 
after the murder of Lovejoy, and when the State was loaded down 
by weight of debt and depression of business, there were men of 
influence who declared there was no other way for the State to 
be delivered from its " Slough of Despond," but to call a State 
convention and alter the Constitution, so that slavery might be 
legally introduced. It was the thought of some that there could 
be no prosperity unless some one did the work of another for 
nothing. In much earlier times there were prominent men in 
this State who persistently held to such views, and they were car- 
ried into political action to that extent that the supporters of this 
policy were defined as the " slave party." 

The Territorial Legislature of Illinois seemed to favor the meas- 
sure, but it produced a partial re-action, so that an anti-slavery 
delegate, Jonathan Jennings, was elected to Congress, who re- 
tained his place until Illinois was admitted as one of the States 
of the Union, in 1818. In 1824 the question of the admission of 
slavery came up so prominently in what was called the Convention 
issue, which was to call a Convention to alter the Constitution to 
admit slavery, that it became a marked chapter in the history of 
Illinois. Gov. Coles was distinguished as an anti-slavery man on 
this question. He had moved into the State from Virginia, and had 
emancipated his slaves, and settled them on land near Edwards- 
ville. It required a vote of two-thirds of the legislature to call 
a convention for the people to vote to alter the Constitution. 
And so strong was the slavery party in the State that they lacked 
only one vote of getting the constitutional two-thirds in favor of 
the measure at first; and by a legislative trick this one was at last 
gained, and a vote of the people for the convention was author- 
ized; but in August, 1824, it was voted down by the people by a 
majority of 1,800 in a vote of 12,000. 

On such a slender thread as this did the fate of the State and 
the nation hang, as the truth of history shows. 

There was in 1824, in consequence of these schemes for slave- 
ry, a strong contesting anti-slavery party in Illinois. This was 
after the passage of the Missouri Compromise, in 1820, and when 
there had come a relapse in the anti-slavery feeling everywhere 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 650 

else in the country. Benjamin Lttndy was at that time printing 
in Tennessee, the first anti-slaveiy newspaper ever issued. 
The slavery question was then generally admitted to be a mat- 
ter to be determined by the people of the Slave States for them- 
selves. From Lundy's efforts came the agitation of modern 
abolitionism. It took on anew and more energetic phase, when 
Garrison, a disciple of Lundy's, started his "Liberator" at Bos- 
ton, in 1830. Those who took interest in the anti-slavery dis- 
cussion that grew out of the Missouri Compromise in 1820, 
looked upon this Convention question in Illinois as one of na- 
tional importance: — should the apostacy of the Missouri ques- 
tion lead to the abrogation of the Northwestern Ordinance? 
and shall the whole territory northwest of the Ohio river be 
given up to slavery by a vote of the people, on the primative 
squatter sovereignty assumption, in spite of the Missouri Com- 
promise? 

It was during the time that these apostate settlers were pro- 
posing to repeal this restriction-clause in the ordinance, and after 
the slavery question was being agitated in Illinois, that Thomas 
Jefferson wrote his famous letter, in 1814, to Gov. Edward Cole, on 
the condition of the slave, and the hopes of his emancipation. He 
says: "The love of justice, and the love of country, plead equally 
the cause of these people; and it is a moral reproach to us that 
they should have plead so long in vain. * * * From those 
of the former generation who were in the fullness of age when I 
came into public life, which was while our controversy with Eng- 
land was on paper only, I soon saw that nothing was to be hoped. 
* * "* I had always hoped that the younger generation, receiv- 
ing their early impressions after the flame of liberty had been 
kindled in every breast, and had become, as it were, the vital, 
spark of every American, in the generous temperament of youth, 
analogous to the motion of their blood, and above the suggestions 
of avarice — would have sympathized with oppression wherever 
found, and proved their love of liberty beyond their own share of 
it. * * * Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing in the 
march of time." 

Hardly thirteen years had passed away before this an ti- slavery 
party of Illinois seemed to have perished, or the men leading in 
it taking opposite sides, when the question came up on new is- 
sues. Hooper Warren, who had been the single newspaper 
editor who opposed the convention, was almost the only man 
alive of the old associates, who ranked himself with the modern 
abolitionists. Bev. John M. Peck, who had been an active op- 
ponent of the introduction of slavery into Illinois, was active in 
opposition to modern abolitionism, and was regarded as pro- 



660 The Anti- Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

slavery, and was engaged as editor of the Southwestern Baptist 
Banner — a newspaper that was completely acceptable to a de- 
nomination that owned one of their preachers as a slave, and to 
a church where one of the female members sold a brother-bap- 
tist, and contributed the avails of the sale of the brother's flesh 
and blood to buy the plate for the communion service. But 
still the truth seemed to be left in the land, like the leaven, to 
bring the dead . mass to life again ; and emancipation went 
marching on with time, though it left its followers behind. 

About ten years after this convention project was settled, 
Rev. E. P. Lovejot was found in St. Louis, editing a religious 
newspaper, in which, under the privileges of the free press, he 
claimed the right to discuss the subject of slavery as a moral 
question. That right was denied him, and he was driven out of 
St. Louis, and he sought a city of refuge in Illinois, at Alton. 
Here he claimed only the same right, not to be an abolitionist, 
but the freedom of the press to discuss slavery as freely as any 
moral question. And that right was again denied him in Alton 
by the voice of the populace, but not by the law. One press 
after another was destroyed, and he still persisting in standing 
by his rights. In the month of November, 1837, he was killed 
by the mob; and in thirteen years after the State had deliberate- 
ly decided to stand for the liberty that was guaranteed her in 
the ordinance for her government, she gained the unenviable 
title of being the Martyr State, by suffering one of the truest 
men that ever lived, to die for the very cause that she had made 
alive. And there were very few people, indeed, in the State to 
raise any voice of condemnation against this outrage. And like 
the martyr, Stephen, devout men carried Lovejoy to his burial, 
though not so many in number as made lamentation over Ste- 
phen, for only a brother minister made a prayer over his grave, at 
which only were present, for fear of the mob, but one or two 
faithful friends and relatives. A cluster of brother ministers of 
the New School Presbyterians and Congregationalists, and pious 
members of these churches, stood by him in his conflicts for the 
freedom of the press, and lamented him when dead, and had 
their zeal for the same cause inspired by his example. Every 
important town in the State seemed emulous of the fate of Al- 
ton. It w T as the exultant boast of the people of Illinois, in 1837, 
that no abolition newspaper could be permitted on her soil. 
Abolitionism, a " word covered o'er with shame," always meant, 
and only meant, the freedom of the slave — that emancipation, 
which Jefferson so hopefully saw advancing in the march of 
time. 

Soon after the murderof Lovejoy ,^there was a meeting called in 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 661 

Chicago — not to sympathize with the cause of abolitionism, but to 
condemn this assault on the constitutional right of the freedom 
of the press. It was called to be held in the Saloon Building, a 
small public hall on the corner of Clark and Lake streets, on the 
third floor, and the meeting was held not without fears that it 
would be broken up by a mob. There was an abundance of cau- 
tion used in the calling and holding of the meeting, to avoid any 
collision " with the fellows of the baser sort." Rev. F. Bascom, 
of the First Presbyterian Church, Dr. C. V. Dyer, Philo Car- 
penter, Robert Freeman, Calvin De Wolf, and some few members 
of the Baptist and Methodist churches, were the leading spirits 
of this meeting. A watch was set to give seasonable warning 
of any approach of a mob, should any one be sent howling upon 
the track of these devout men, mourning for Lovejoy, and en- 
deavoring to give voice to a right minded public opinion. But 
there was happily no demonstration of mob violence, and the 
meeting was not a large one, but probably fully represented the 
interest which Chicago then took in the fate of Lovejoy ; the city was 
at least saved from the disgrace of a mob. It was not then pre- 
sumed that an abolition press would have fared any better in 
Chicago than it had at Alton. The public were not prepared to 
tolerate any such newspapers. 

This was the first anti-slavery meeting, if it may be called ^ 
such, held in Chicago, of which there is any recollection. The 
men who were present became prominent afterward in the anti- 
slavery history of Chicago. The men who were willing to be 
known as abolitionists, soon after this event, were mainly a 
nucleus that formed around the First Presbyterian Church, em- 
bracing a few individuals who were Methodists or Baptists; but in 
almost eYerj instance they were professing Christians, who were 
led to take a stand by the death of Lovejoy. Llere was the begin- 
ning of that anti-slavery sentiment that became a power in Chi- 
cago, and made that city distinguished throughout the country 
as one that proved itself a law-abiding community by sheltering 
and protecting the fugitive slave against illegal arrest. 

A few months after the death of Lovejoy, the people of the 
West saw this announcement in G. D. Prentice's Louisville 
Journal: "Benjamin Lundy, the Quaker and Anti-Slavery Pio- 
neer, is about to go to Illinois to succeed Lovejoy in printing an 
abolition newspaper." Prentice had known of the career of 
Lundy, and was personally friendly. It was then said that Lun- 
dy, the non-resistant Quaker, who was known as a prudent 
though a fearless man, was the only person the merciless people 
of Illinois would let live in their midst as the publisher of a 
newspaper that opposed slavery, and it was very doubtful whether 



662 The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

even lie could be allowed to find a place for the rest of the soles 
of his feet in the Prairie jState. But during the year 183S, Lnn- 
dy, according to promise, made his appearance in Illinois. The 
last compliment paid him before he left Philadelphia was the 
burning of all his worldly effects by the mob in Pennsylvania 
Hall. He had only a subscription book to begin his publication 
with in Illinois. The Genius of Universal Emancipation, a 
paper which has been printed for many years, in many cities and 
States, now hailed from Hennepin, but w T as really printed at 
Lowell, LaSalle county. The notable thing about this paper, for 
our purpose in this connection, was that it carried upon its front- 
let this motto: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
men are created equal," etc. This was the motto and the plat- 
form of Lundy's journal; the paper was for the restoration of 
the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence. 

We can better understand this line of argument in history 
by referring to the character of the anti-slavery agitation as car- 
ried on by different sects in different sections of the country. The 
anti-slavery movement w r as largely an emanation of the religious 
sentiment. Leading men in it w T ere usually professing Christ- 
ians, and largely developed in the line of personal piety and hu- 
man benevolence. There were a few persons who were earnest 
abolitionists who were avowed unbelievers, and probably from a 
logical inference growing out of the fact that the majority of 
the professing Christians of the country pretended to believe 
that the bible authorized slavery, making God the author of 
that abominable system of iniquity. But slavery in all its as- 
pects was very largely apolitical institution. It was created by 
law; it must be abolished by law. There was no class of aboli- 
tionists that proposed the removal of slavery by the political 
power of the nation. It was universally regarded as a State in- 
stitution, and it was a perversion of the facts and a misrepre- 
sentation of the position of the agitators, the assertion that there 
was any purpose to meddle with slavery by an undue exercise of 
legal authority. 

It was a movement for a moral appeal to the slaveholders to 
action of themselves, for their own salvation. Therefore the fact 
should be remembered that many of the active abolitionists were 
among and from the slaveholders of the South ; and a sad thing 
it was for the people there that they drove such men from their 
midst. The abolition party was divided up into sects; some 
were for carrying that reform mixed up with other good meas- 
ures, such as women suffrage, land reform, and temperance. 
Some were for making it a political question, carrying it to the 
polls, as they said; others were not for soiling the reform in the 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 663 

muddy waters of politics. Garrison stands forth as a leader, but 
he was not for voting at all, and declared for " no union with 
slaveholders," in Church or State. The voting abolitionists formed 
a political party in 1840, and nominated James G. Blrney, 
formerly a slaveholder, for the Presidency. 

But this section was again divided into other sects. Some were 
only Free Soil; some merely against the extension of slavery, and 
the Gerrit Smith section was the very antipodes of the Garrisonian 
section. They believed in the unconstitutionality of slavery, and 
would have had it smitten down by a decree of the United States 
Court. Garrison's special characteristic was his repetition of 
Elizabeth Heyrick's English propogandism of immediate and un- 
conditional emancipation, as in opposition to gradual emancipa- 
tion, on the logical inference that slavery being a sin should be 
immediately forsaken by profession of repentance. Great stress 
is laid on Garrison's work for originating this doctrine in this 
country, and giving it, as it was said to do, the great moral power 
that carried it through to success in emancipation. But the vir- 
tue of this claim is much over-rated. Garrison did not originally 
preach it, nor was* it finally carried to completion in the ending 
of slavery. Emancipation came through the madness of the 
slaveholders and the use of the war-power, in judgment without 
repentance. 

But there were anti-slavery people among all these sects, ex- 
cepting the non-resistants, who believed in the saving power of 
the Declaration of Independence. They believed in the neces- 
sity of continuing to administer the national government on the 
principles of the Declaration of Independence, and that failing to 
do so, all political parties had gone into a state of apostacy. The 
reform in Illinois particularly was propogated on this basis. An- 
ti-slavery men here were trained to be so, on the truths of the 
Declaration of Independence. They were never divided or troub- 
led with the divisions that characterized the East, under the strin- 
gent lead of Garrison, Gerrit Smith or Greeley. They fellow- 
shipped all these, but followed the lead of none of them. They 
were working for a genuine Liberty Party to administer the gov- 
ernment on the Constitution as it is under the Declaration of In- 
dependence as the Magna Charta. It is necessary that this ex- 
planation and distinction be understood as we proceed further in 
this hitherto unwritten history. 

Benjamin Lundy, the pioneer, as we have said, when he came 
to Illinois, setup the banner of the Declaration of Independence 
on the ground of the ordinance of '87. He had always held up 
that banner. It was always the motto of his paper. Lovejoy's 
Alton Observer was in no sense a political paper; it was a Pres- 



/ 



664: The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

byterian religions journal, claiming the right to discuss slavery 
as a moral question. The Liberty Party of 1840 was not formed 
when Lundy came to this State; he died the year before its or- 
ganization. But it had been proposed. Lundy favored such a 
party in politics, based upon the motto of his paper. His 
" Genius" through many difficulties, was only irregularly pub- 
lished. He lived only to set up that banner; to become the 
nucleus of a new party, and one which at last should triumph 
in the nation. His leading idea was armed with tenfold more 
force than Garrison's Immediatism or Gerrit Smith's Unconsti- 
tutionality of slavery. It was for going back to fundamental 
truths, and putting all th'ngs right from the beginning. He 
died, leaving his banner flying, and his mantle to be worn by 
others. 

His newspaper was continued, with a partial change of name, 
by Hooper Warren and Z. Eastman, the writer of this sketch. 
But the motto and the principles and objects continued. Mr. 
Warren was then an old man, and had been the editor of the only 
anti-slavery paper in Illinois, the Edwardsville Spectator^ at 
the time of the Convention question. Mr. Eastman was a young 
man, and had never acted with any then formed political party, 
but whose youthful aspirations and hopes had been, wdiile resid- 
ing in JNew England, for the formation of a political organization 
delivered from the national apostacy, which should administer 
the government on the doctrine of the Fathers — the natural 
equality of all. He had advocated such a party while associated 
with Mr. Lundy in his " Genius." 

In 1810 a Birney Presidential ticket was formed in Illinois, 
in the rural region of Farmington, Fulton Co., by those who had 
stood by Lovejoy at his death. It received at that election only 
114 votes, only one of which was counted in* Cook County, and 
the honor of that one count lies between two votes ca'st in Chica- 
go, one by the late Dr. C. Y. Dyer, and the other, Calvin De- 
Wolf The successor of Lundy's journal, the Genius of Liber- 
ty, did not appear till after the election of 1840; but it advocated 
the continuation of the Liberty party in opposition to a large 
portion of friends who had co-operated with the Anti-slavery 
Society. The Illinois Anti-slavery Society had been formed at 
Alton, just before Lovejoy's death, and was one of the steps that 
led to the hostility that was manifested against the abolitionists, 
and the organization was cemented by his blood. Annual meet- 
ings of this society continued to be held, and officers elected; 
but many persons who had supported it, were opposed to the 
formation of an anti-slavery party in politics, and they turned 
back, and walked no more with the followers of Lovejoy. 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 665 

Warren and Eastman's Genius was printed on Lundy's 
press, in LaSalle county, till 1842, and it had succeeded in estab- 
lishing landmarks in all sections of the Northwest. The only 
other journal of the kind then printed in the West was the Phi- 
lanthropist, at Cincinnati. An informal committee of the anti- 
slavery people of Chicago, who had made np their minds that 
they should no longer vote with the old political parties, a ma- 
jority of whom were of the First Presbyterian Church, under the 
pastorate of Eev. F. Bascom, invited Mr. Eastman to remove 
with his newspaper to Chicago. Dr. Dyer was the party com- 
missioned to extend this invitation. As the result of it, the 
Western Citizen was started as the organ of the new Liberty 
party for the Northwest in 1842. That journal made the plat- 
form of that party in the introduction which appeared in its first 
number, as follows: 

" In political affairs, our object is simply to cany out the principles of the 
Declaration of Independence. We stand on the same ground where Washington. 
Jefferson, Franklin, and other honored patriots stood before us. We wish to 
save this nation from the evils and the curse of slavery, and from the political de- 
generacy which has fallen upon us, through the influence of a departure from 
the first principles of liberty. If the objects which were sought to be obtained 
by the political reformation in the time of the Revolution, were then worthy of 
pursuit, they are equally so now ; and we shall not cease to urge the importance 
of them upon the people. 

11 We are firm in the belief that it is impossible to sustain a free government 
by the administration even of good laws, without the prevalence of correct pub- 
lic opinion, grounded upon morality and a proper allegiance to the Supreme Ruler 
of the Universe. 

"We shall endeavor to establish these truths, by presenting them clearly, 
forcibly and fearlessly, and in a spirit of meekness and kindness. On their ac- 
complishment, we see no reason why our government should be overturned — our 
constitution tiampled under foot — or the union dissolved ; or why the church 
organizations should be destroyed, or the ministry be annihilated. We wish it 
distinctly to be understood that dur course is reformatory and not destructive." 

"When Mr. Lincoln had been elected to the presidency, eighteen 
years after this declaration of principles was written, a copy was 
transmitted to him, calling his attention to them as the funda- 
mental principles of the Republican party which had triumphed 
in his election; and he responded in recognizing their applica- 
tion, and inviting a special interview with the writer in regard 
to them. 

In May, 1842, at the time when arrangements had been made 
for establishing the Western Citizen, the last anniversary meeting 
of the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society — consecrated by the blood 
of Lovejoy — was held in Chicago; and the first Liberty State 
Convention was held, which, as a political organization, succeed- 
ed the other as a mere moral societv. This State convention laid 



66 6 The Anti- Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

down a platform of principles, and issued an address to the peo- 
ple. One resolution gives the gist of its doctrines: 

" That freedom or slavery is the great question of this age and country — one 
which must be met, discussed and settled on fair, just and consistent principles, 
before prosperity can be expected again to smile on our land." 

We can understand now the application of these truths and 
warnings, and how much better it would have been for the na- 
tion had they been heeded. 

The convention put in nomination Major C. W. Hunter, of 
Alton, for governor, and Frederick Collins, of Adams county, for 
lieutenant governor. These were the first candidates of that ini- 
tiatory party. 

The Western Citizen was put into the hands of Mr. Eastman 
as its editor and publisher. By his invitation, Ichabod Codding, 
whom he had known at the East, left Connecticut and came to 
Illinois to become the leading orator for the Liberty Party. 
Chief Justice Chase has described Mr. Codding as being the 
most eloquent speaker he ever heard from the platform. The la- 
bors of Codding, as a speaker, were very effective in building up 
the cause. Owen Lovejoy became a co-worker with this party 
at this convention, giving up, with some reluctance, the society 
formed at his brother's martyrdom. James H. Collins, a promi- 
nent lawyer of Chicago, who had some time before been converted 
to religion and abolitionism, at that time gave in his adhesion to 
the Liberty Party then formed, as the party of his future politi- 
cal life. L. C. P. Freer and Calvin DeWolf, Philo Carpenter, 
and most of the men since prominent in that reform, identified 
themselves with this new party. Dr. C. Y. Dyer was probably 
the most active of the Chicago reinforcements. He procured 
the place of meeting, which was in Chapman's Hall, a building oc- 
cupying the ground of the new bank building on the southwest 
corner of Randolph and LaSalle streets, west of the log jail, on 
the public square. This convention was the beginning of the 
organization of abolitionism in Chicago, that became nationally 
known for its earnestness and thoroughness, and locally recog- 
nized for its association with the Underground Railroad, and had 
a marked effect on the politics of the State, and ultimately the 
fate of the nation. Its projectors probably builded wiser than 
they knew. 

After this convention the Liberty Party always put candidates 
in nomination for every State election; and candidates for Con- 
gress were brought out as fast as the principles of the party 
gained ground in Congressional Districts. As the conflict for 
its idea went on, the contest was intensified by the political 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 667 

issues that were coming up in the nation, growing out in part of 
the moral agitation that was going on in the land. 

Then came the annexation of Texas, for the purpose of extend- 
ing the area of slavery, followed by the Mexican War, as the re- 
sult of that national robbery; then the acquisition of a vast ex- 
tent of territory, and the contest that came of it, as to its fate in 
regard to the extension of slavery into it; the Wilmot Proviso, 
the Xehraska and the Kansas bills, squatter sovereignty, and the 
contest for freedom in Kansas, which brought old John Brown 
to the front; these, all supplemented by the passage of the Fu- 
gitive Slave Law, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
bringing down these events of this exciting agitation till 1851, 
on which period hangs a new dispensation. During this time 
the Liberty Party was looming up in power and in importance. 
It was the only party that was capable of grappling with the 
events that were pregnant with the fate of the nation. 

It was a period of political and moral commotion unparalleled 
in the history of any nation. It was the period of intense agita- 
tion of the slavery question in every respect. The Democratic 
party had said in its platform that it would resist this agitation, 
and then went on and furnished fuel for the agitation. The 
Whig party, in its platform, said they would discountenance this 
agitation, and then gave countenance to the agitation that was 
aimed against the principles of this little Liberty party. And in 
Illinois this little party became the most thoroughly organized 
and concentrated political combination ever before known in this 
State, and probably not since equaled in intensity and efficiency. 
In 1852 it numbered ten thousand votes and held the balance of 
power in a majority of the Congressional districts. The voters 
were all readers of their organ, the Western Citizen, which 
through all the changes and modifications of Free Soilism, con- 
science AVhiggery and Independent Democracy, and American- 
ism, remained true to its one idea, the Liberty Party to preserve 
the government as the succession of the party of 1776, that had 
formed the nation. 

This national agitation brought two important men of Illinois 
to the front as national men, namely, Stephen A. Douglas and 
Abraham Lincoln. They were leading men, representing oppo- 
site principles and antagonistic elements in the fate of the nation. 
Into the area of the consecrated freedom of the Xorthwestern 
Ordinance came the conflict of the ideas which should rule the 
fate of the nation, and these men in the order of events seemed 
to be the representatives of the struggle of these ideas for the as- 
cendency. But the Liberty Party was the only organization that 
was prepared to meet the emergency. 



668 The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

Previous to 1852, the State of Illinois was regarded as one of 
the most solidly democratic states in the Union. The people were 
only allowed to send to Congress one opposition member, called 
whig, at each congressional election. And this opposition influ- 
ence came from the conservative, Henry Clay-school of politics, 
that had overflowed from Kentucky into the interior of Illinois, 
overlapping the area of Egypt, which was always darkly demo- 
cratic. This conservative whig influence sent a Lincoln, a Baker 
and aYates to Congress at different elections, as the single opposi- 
tion representative. And Stephen A. Douglas, a native of Ver- 
mont, seemed to have made himself the demi-god of the State, as 
fully as John C. Calhoun was of South Carolina. The State was 
of course, earnestly in support of all the measures of the Democratic 
party, and these measures were being artfully manipulated to 
bring Douglas prominently before the public as a national man, 
with an impetus in the direction of the Presidency. 

Mr. Lincoln, as an attorney and an honest man, and of genu- 
ine, progressive conservatism in politics, had grown into great 
esteem with the people of all parties. He had won in Congress 
some reputation to his damage, as a politician, by his opposition 
to the Mexican war. Douglas was the leader of the debate 
through the Senate, of the principles on the platform in the State. 
Douglas was mainly responsible for the squatter sovereignty 
theory of governing the territories, as well as for the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise, and was one who was known as an ad- 
vocate of the Fugitive Slave Law. These measures put the whole 
country in a state of ferment. Mr. Douglas took the stump in 
their favor, while Mr. Lincoln was known to be opposed to them. 
In 1852, the Fugitive Slave Law abomination had been passed; the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise was a measure pending. The 
Liberty part}?- maintained an unbroken front in its organization. 
The democratic party was feeling the disrupting influences of its 
iniquities from free-soilism, yet apparently growing stronger in 
its sin, by the concentration of all the rowdy forces of the nation 
in its favor, and the prospective coming of the solid South on the 
slavery question. The whig party was sensibly weakening from 
the protest of the conscientious whigs, and the higher moral plane 
on which the party stood. There were signs ot disruption and 
the formation of a new party, on the distinct issues which the 
democrats had made for their party lines. 

Thinking men of the Liberty Party realized that they were in 
possession of a balance of power, as between these two weaken- 
ing forces, which might be used effectually for the advancement 
of their principles and objects. The State was despotically 
democratic under the lead of Douglas, wdio had even then an 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 669 

eye on the Presidency. The party had every member of Con- 
gress, excepting Richard Yates, who had been elected by a small 
majority. The Liberty Party now knew by the numbering of 
their votes that they had it in their power to turn the scale in 
favor of the weakening Whig part}', or let the power remain 
with the Democrats. In the election of 1852, they stood by 
their colors on the presidential vote, and gave to John P. Hale 
nearly 10,000 votes. But enough of them, under the advice of 
their leaders, and the indirect influence of the Western Citizen, 
so diverted their votes to Congressmen, who they knew were 
pledged to their principles and against Douglas' pet doctrines, 

that they secured the election of several "Whigs to Congress, and 

• 

independent democrats, so that the State was at once taken out 

of the hands of the democrats, and that arrogant power in Illi- 
nois was broken forever. It was at this election and by this 
policy that Jlon. E. B. Washburne was first elected to Congress. 
Who now can measure the consequences that grew out of that 
choice? 

Mr. Lincoln was made the candidate of the "Whig party in 
the winter of 1851 against the re-election of Gen. Shields to the 
Senate. The Liberty party vote had contributed to the election 
of a so-called Wilis' delegation in Congress. A large number 
of Free Soilers and Independent Democrats had contributed to 
the same result. In the State legislature the Free Soilers and 
Liberty party held the balance of power. It was thought that it 
was asking a little too much that they should be required also to 
magnify the old "Whig party, by giving their power to the Sen- 
ate also, as they would have done had Mr. Lincoln been elected 
by their votes, and it would have been accounted a "Whig party 
triumph instead of a triumph of the people, and the Liberty 
party would have been held responsible for selling out to the 
Whigs. They had to study the art of using their power and 
keeping it. For this reason Mr. Lincoln did not receive the sup- 
port of this class of representatives, as Mr. Washburne and Mr. 
Norton had received that class of votes ; but the Independent 
and Liberty vote was given to Lyman Trumbull, and he was 
elected Senator, and Mr. Lincoln reserved for a higher position, 
It was a most fortunate thing, indicating wise political manage- 
ment, that Mr. Lincoln was not elected Senator at that election. 
The Republican party was informally organized in 185L con- 
summated in the nomination of Fremont in 1856. The Liberty 
party holding to its principles, was only merged into the Repub- 
lican after this date. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise soon followed this 
election, and Mr. Douglas seemed to vainly hope to recover his 



670 The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

lost popularity at home, by tl e success of tin's measure, and the 
double-sided view that seemed to some extent, to be taken of it 
at the North and South — at the South as a measure for the exten- 
sion of slavery beyond its original boundary line; at the North 
as favoring the extension of liberty beyond the line of its former 
restriction. Mr. Douglas' artful insinuation of the act was that 
if it was originally wrong to pass that compromise, it was now a 
long-deferrecl right to repeal it. But the moral sense of the 
nation interpreted it otherwise. It was looked upon along with 
the Dred Scott decision, as treading down the last barrier 
against the supremacy of the slavery power. This repeal put the 
antagonistic forces more directly in battle array. 

Mr. Douglas' term in the Senate was to expire next, and the 
re-election, or the election of another one in his place, would 
occur in the session of the legislature in the winter of 1858-9. 
Mr. Lincoln was opportunely in reserve to be put into the held 
in this contest. Mr. Douglas was looking to the endorsement 
of his own State after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, and 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in his own re-election, 
and as a stepping-stone for the higher position of a nomination 
to the presidency, by the democratic party. 

The old Whigs had unlimited confidence in Mr. Lincoln; he 
was the most popular man in the party. But there was some 
earnest inquiry by those who had previously opposed his election 
as Senator, as to his fitness to represent them in the hoped-for 
re-organization of party on the question of the Liberty Party 
resolution of 1842, " Freedom or Slavery." Would Mr. Lincoln 
be such a partisan that he would elect to live or die as a Whig, 
and die with his party? or was he prepared to live if his party 
should die? Affairs had got to that state that it seemed as if 
the good old Whig party, which had been much idolized, must be 
the first to die for the people. 

The editor of the Western Citizen, about this time, visited 
Springfield in company with Cassius M. Clay. He took the 
occasion to call upon Mr. Lincoln, but had no conversation on 
political subjects. He remembered that a client of Mr. Lincoln's, 
who was the agent of the Underground Railway at Springfield, 
and who had employed Mr. Lincoln as his attorney in all times 
trouble, and who greatly esteemed him — had paid for a copy of his 
paper from year to year, which he had had addressed to A. Lin- 
coln. He remembered that at the mast-head of this paper, this 
motto liad been ever carried as Lundy had carried it — " We 
hold these truths to be self-evident," etc.; and he had 
some desire to know how this doctrine fitted on the great lawyer 
who was the defender of the asrent of the Underground Railroad 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation, in Illinois. 671 

against legal prosecution. This agent said Mr. Lincoln was 
all right on the negro question ; he gave money when necessary, 
to help the fugitives on the way to freedom. There was some 
desire to know if he would stand right on the ^National questions 
if he were elected to the Senate, as there was then a prospect of 
his being a competitor of Judge Douglas. An interview was 
had with Mr. Herndon, his law-partner. Mr. Herndon said Mr. 
Lincoln was all right. " He lias been an attentive reader of your 
paper for several years ; he believes in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and he is a great reader of the abolition papers. He is 
well posted. That he might get all sides of that question, I take 
Garrison's Liberator, and he takes the National Era and the West- 
ern Citizen. Although he does not say much, you may depend 
upon it, Mr. Lincoln is all right; when it becomes necessary, he 
will speak so that he will be understood." And he did speak 
to the Bloomington Convention. After this there was no lon- 
ger any opposition to Mr. Lincoln from the most radical of the 
abolitionists. They understood him; they knew that he was 
wholly with them; that the great inspiration of his life, was the 
restoration of the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, 
to the administration of the government. 

Mr. Douglas found that his doctrine of squatter sovereignty 
rather over-acted itself with his own democratic party. He 
builded worse than he had contemplated, and he was brought 
into discord with a wing of his own party on the Lecompton 
Constitution of Kansas, which had been adopted by the Mis- 
souri invaders, and which he strenuously opposed because there 
was too much squatter sovereignty in it. But on his return to 
Illinois at the close of the session, in the spring of 1857, Mr. 
Douglas expressed in his speech at Springfield, a determination 
to maintain all the positions he had taken in the Senate on the 
slavery question, intimating that he might even sustain the Le- 
compton Convention, and its slaveholding constitution, and on 
this basis go before the people for re-election. Whenever Mr. 
Douglas made a speech defining his policy, the public expected 
a reply from Mr. Lincoln. In this instance they were not dis- 
appointed, and in two weeks Mr. Lincoln reviewed Mr. Doug- 
las' leading speech. In this speech occurs this remarkable pas- 
sage, referring to a portion of judge Taney's memorable Dred 
Scott decision: 

' ' In those days (early times of the country) our Declaration of Independence 
was held sacred by all, and thought to include all: but now, to aid in making 
the bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, sneered at, con- 
strued, hawked at and torn, till, if its framers could rise from then graves, they 
■could not at all recognize it. All the powers of earth seem rapidly combining 
against him. Mammon is after him; ambition follows, philosophy follows, and 



G72 The Anti- Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

the theology of the day is fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison- 
house; they have searched his person, and left no prying instrument with him. 
One after another they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him; and now they 
have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can never 
be unlocked without the concurrence of every key; the keys in the hands of a 
hundred different men, and they scattered to a hundred different and distant 
places; and they stand musing as to what invention, in all the dominions of 
mind and matter, can be produced to make the impossibility of his escape more 
complete than it is." 

There is almost the hint of prophecy in this paragraph. Mr. 
Lincoln, in less than eight years, led by Providence, found the 
instrument to unlock that prison-house without the key, and set 
the prisoner free. 

In this same speech at Springfield we find the following: 

"He (Douglas) finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of 
Independence includes all men, black as well as white, and forthwith he boldly 
denies that it includes negroes at all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all who 
contend that it does, want to vote, eat, sleep and marry with negroes. I pro- 
test against this counterfeit logic. * * * If I do not want a black woman for 
a slave, it does not follow that I want her for a wife. * * In some respects 
she is not my equal, but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with 
her own hand without asking leave of anyone else, she is my equal and the equal 
of all others." 

The Senatorial question was the great question of Illinois in 
the year of 1858. Mr. Douglas was already on the stump in de- 
fense of his measures which he had pressed upon the nation, 
through the Senate. Mr. Lincoln, who was regarded as his nat- 
ural competitor and opponent, had been prompt to volunteer to 
reply to Douglas' introductory speeches, an extract from one of 
which we have just given. The unusual practice was resorted to 
by the new party of Republicans, of holding a State Convention 
for the nomination of a candidate for Senator, and Mr. Lincoln 
was cordially put in nomination. The question was not to be 
determined by their votes, but by the votes of the representatives 
in the State Legislature. Therefore, in the canvass representa- 
tives were selected in view of settling the Senatorial succession, 
whether it should be Douglas, a democrat, or Lincoln, a Repub- 
lican. It was well understood that in Mr. Douglas' case it would 
settle more than the Senatorial question; with him it was also a 
nomination for the Presidency. With Mr. Lincoln it was only 
a contest with this champion Democrat for the senatorship, but 
more in the contest than on anything else, for the prospect of 
defeating Mr. Douglas on his own ground did not seem very 
brilliant. 

This story is told of Mr. Lincoln, that illustrates his view of 
the situation. An inquirer says to Mr. Lincoln, "What do you 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 673 

expect to do? You don't expect to beat Douglas, do you?" Mr. 
Lincoln responded that it was with him as it was with the boys 
who made an attack on a hornet's nest. " What do you expect 
to do, boys? You don't calculate to take that hornet's nest, do 
you?" "We don't know that we shall exactly take it, but we 
shall bedevil the nest." " So," Mr. Lincoln said, "if we don't 
capture Douglas we shall bedevil his nest." That is about the 
way Douglas found it, some time after the election. 

The debate which followed between Lincoln and Douglas, was 
one of the most important political debates that ever occurred 
in this country. Mr. Douglas had already become a national 
man through the strength of his character and genius, and for 
his daring in political lofty-tumbling. Mr. Lincoln was not 
well known beyond his own State, but at home well known as a 
keen debater, and a match in logic and hard-drawn arguments 
for his brilliant opponent. 

Mr. Lincoln was nominated as a condidate for the Senate, at the 
convention at Springfield, June 17, 1858. At the close of the 
convention, he struck the key-note of the debate on the issues 
of the day, in the opening paragraph of his speeeh. It has since 
been numbered with others of the remarkable historical and pro- 
phetical utterances of that wonderful man. It is the famous 
declaration that this Union could not permanently endure half 
slave and half free. It is matched only by Mr. Seward's " irre- 
pressible conflict." Said Mr. Lincoln: 

" If we could first know u here we are, and whither we are tending, we could 
better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far in the fifth year, 
since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of 
putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy^ that 
agitation has not only not closed, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, 
it will not cease until a crisis has been reached and passed, A house divided 
against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot permanently en- 
dure half slave and half free. I do not expect the union to be dissolved — I do 
not expect the house to fall — but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. It 
will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will 
arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in 
the belief that it is in the coarse of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will 
push it forward till it shah, become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as 
new, North, as well as South." 

This was uttered, as Mr. Greeley says, by one born in Ken- 
tucky under the influence of slavery, and but recently a conserv- 
ative politician, four months before, Mr. Seward put forth his 
more classical prophetic statement; and the two are more in- 
teresting for standing in parallel companionship. Said Mr. 
Seward : 

' 'These antagonistic systems are continually coming into closer contact, and 
collision results. Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think 

43 



674: The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and 
therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible con- 
flict between opposing and enduring forces ; and it means that the United States 
mast and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slave-holding nation, or 
entirely a free-labor nation." 

In this same Springfield speech Mr. Lincoln gave the best in- 
terpretation ever made of the popular term of squatter sover- 
eignty, which, while in its proper phase it expressed only the 
rightful basis of government, was so perverted in this case as 
to mean: "If any one man chooses to enslave another, no third 
person shall be allowed to object. 5 ' On another occasion he 
forcibly expressed the same idea in the reversed sense: "I ad- 
mit that the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to 
govern himself ; but I deny his right to govern any other person 
without that person's consent." 

In this canvass Mr. Lincoln held seven joint debates with Mr. 
Douglas, and made innumerable speeches on other occasions. 
Mr. Douglas' character and position was well known throughout 
the nation, and he was regarded as the foremost champion of the 
measures which characterized the slave policy, and one of the 
ablest debaters of the country. The originality and freshness of 
Mr. Lincoln's speeches — his terse and homely style — the perti- 
nence of his illustrations, and his inimitable humor, attracted to 
him public attention; and the debate had hardly closed before 
he became equally known through the nation, and the eyes of the 
public were upon these two men as the most prominent political 
personages of the country. Mr. Douglas used to say, rather 
sneeringly, during the debate, that Mr. Lincoln was after his 
place — meaning the senatorship. Mr. Lincoln never shrunk 
from the imputation that he was the Republican candidate for that 
office. But Mr. Douglas was also looking for another place, of 
which his election to the Senate was only the stepping-stone, and 
that was the Presidency. The thoughts of some may have been 
led in the direction that this new man, rising so rapidly into popu- 
larity in the West, might also be an opposing candidate in the 
same election, but there were then no marked manifest demonstra- 
tions in that line. But the result was that Mr. Douglas carried a 
majority of the representatives; there were in the senate fourteen 
Democrats and eleven Republicans, and in the house forty Dem- 
ocrats aud thirty-five Republicans — making a majority on 
joint ballot of eight for Mr. Douglas — the close vote of Mad- 
ison county even turning the scale; but Mr. Lincoln had a plu- 
rality of more than four thousand in the popular vote. And so 
Mr. Douglas kept his place, got his election, and got his coveted 
nomination to the presidency, but the nomination of a divided 
party, and he the rock on which it split. 



The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 675 

An overruling Providence seemed to direct in the affairs of the 
nation in the ordering of the fate of this remarkable man, Abra- 
ham Lincoln; in permitting the defeat of the first nomination, 
when it was a great grief to his friends — and again in the second 
nomination against Mr. Douglas; for he was reserved tor the 
higher position of the Presidency. He did not get the " place" 
of Mr. Douglas, to which he and his friends for him aspired, but 
he got that greater place to which Mr. Douglas had been aspir- 
ing, and it was a "place" into which he was called by that Su- 
preme Ruler of the Universe to whom he had reverently ap- 
pealed, and to a higher position than being the Father of his 
country — for it was to be its Savior. 

The fact stands, that Mr. Lincoln was elected as the first Re- 
publican President. The party that elected him was formed in 
1854. It came from the nucleus of the Liberty party of 1840, 
which came of the modern anti-slavery agitation. It was not 
the child of the Whig party or any other party; it had had no 
succession, as has been claimed for it, and neither has its oppo- 
nents, the democratic party, any such historical succession as has 
been claimed for that. The Republican party of Lincoln was 
the restoration of the party of the Declaration of Independence, 
to bring back the nation from a state of apostacy. The demo- 
cratic party had no succession from Thomas Jefferson, for he 
wrote the platform of this restored party when he wrote that 
Declaration. But the Democratic party was born of Andrew 
Jackson, with Martin Yan Buren for its god-father, and it was 
baptized into the doctrine that " to the victor belongs the spoils." 
In its childhood it was affianced to loaferism and rowdyism, and 
in its maturity became the ally of American slavery. Mr. Lin- 
coln's election was the defeat of that party, and it was to have 
been hoped that, ripening into maturity, in rebellion and treason, 
that its overthrow would have been a death from which there 
was no possible resurrection. 

Mr. Lincoln seemed to have been inspired for the mission to 
which he was called. He doubtless received his early impres- 
sions for his lessons in political reform, from the motto that was 
ever before him in the anti-slavery newspapers which he read, 
and the constant reiterated teachings of the little Liberty party 
that was leading his destiny: " We hold these truths to be self- 
evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their 
creator with certain inalienable rights, " etc. This was the chord 
of harmony in his soul, to which every sentiment and every ac- 
tion of his being vibrated. Therefore in his debate with Doug- 
lass we find him constantly harping upon that chord. This is 
seen in what we have quoted already. Mr. Douglas treated the 



676 The Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois. 

Declaration of Independence with contempt. Mr. Lincoln's en- 
deavor was to bring back the people from the heartlessness of 
apostacy to a lively sense of the beauty and truthfulness of 
those principles. He felt that they were the sentiments of his 
new party, and he led the party still further along in respect 
and love for those principles as its vitality. 

In the platform of the convention at Chicago, which put Mr. 
Lincoln in nomination for the Presidency, May 16, 1860, is this 
declaration: "That the maintenance of the principle promul- 
gated in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the 
Federal Constitution — [now repeating the celebrated motto of 
Liberty] — is essential to the preservation of our republican in- 
stitutions; and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the 
States, and the Union of the States, must and shall be pre- 
served." For that end was Mr. Lincoln, under God, called to 
the head of the nation. 

In the debate Mr. Douglas said: "No man can vindicate 
the character, motives, and conduct of the signers of the Dec- 
laration of Independence except upon the hypothesis that they 
referred to the white race alone, and not to the African." If 
there were such a thing as political blasphemy, we should think 
this were it. Mr. Lincoln responded: "My good friends, read 
that carefully over some leisure hour, and ponder well upon it; 
see what a mere wreck, mangled ruin, it makes of our once glo- 
rious Declaration of Independence." 

After his election, going from his humble home at Springfield, 
to which he never returned alive, on his way to enter into the 
Presidency, he was beset on his way by plots for his assassina- 
tion, but was turned aside by invitation to Philadelphia to a flag- 
raising over Independence Hall, where the Declaration was 
signed eighty-four years before; and on that occasion he gave ut- 
terance to these remarkable words: 

"I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that 
Icept this confederacy so long- together. It was something in the Declaration of 
Independence, giving liberty not only to the people of this country, but hope to 
the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that, in due 
time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all 
i-hoald have an equal chance. * * * Now, my friends, can this country be 
i aved upon this basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men 
in the world if I can help to save it. But, if this country cannot be saved with- 
out giving up that principle, I was about to say, I would rather be assassinated 
upon this spot than to surrender it. 11 

Did he then know that the assassins were on his track? This 
hope of the world, Judge Douglas and the Democratic party 
would have crushed out. 

The space for this chapter will not permit us to quote the 



The Anti- Slavery Agitation in Illinois, 677 

abundant extracts from his abundant writings, where he thus 
shows forth the inspiration of his soul, in being the one called 
of God to bring back the nation from its far wanderings from its 
own faith and hope. Charles Sumner, in his memorial oration 
in commemoration of the life of Lincoln, strikes that chord, and 
shows us in numerous extracts what was the secret of the power 
of Lincoln. 

In a measure this a chapter of unwritten history. The scribes 
of history at the East have failed to tell the world of that patient 
working of the anti-slavery men of the Northwest who followed 
the martyrdom of Lovejoy and the example of Lundy in their 
faithful adhesion to the truth of the Revolutionary fathers, and 
in the regenerating power of their Declaration; and that they 
led such a man as Lincoln in that path of national salvation. It 
is a great truth and marvelous to our comprehension, that the 
policy of the forefathers to keep all our national territory free as 
God had made it, as in the Ordinance of the Northwest, should 
be the saving policy of the nation at last, against that apostacy 
that would have made all the nation slave territory; that in the 
area of that ordinance should this problem be worked out; and 
the man, who is styled the Savior of his Country, be called to 
that position by the voice of God. 

There is nothing more appropriate with which to close this 
chapter, than that pathetic appeal of Abraham Lincoln to the 
nation, to aid him in his work, in the last sentences of his first 
Inaugural Address: 



o 



" We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though pas- 
sion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic 
chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriotic grave, to every 
living heart and hearthstone all over this proud land, will yet swell the chorus of 
the union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angei of 
our nature." 



67$ The Union College of Law. 



THE UNION COLLEGE OF LAW. 

This institution was at first organized as the Law Department 
of the University of Chicago, in the fall of 1859. It was indebted 
for its origin proximately to the liberality of some of the leading 
members of the Chicago Bar, conspicuous among whom was 
Hon. Thomas Iloyne, who contributed the sum of $5,000 towards 
the endowment of a law professorship. Other members of the bar 
united in a guaranty to secure to the professor a sum of money 
which, together with the income of the endowment fund, would 
aggregate $2,000 per annum, for such a period as would suffice to 
give the experiment a fair trial. An invitation was extended to 
Henry Booth, Esq., who was then engaged in the practice of law 
at Poughkeepsie, .N". Y., to come and assume the principal charge 
of the new enterprise. Encouraged by this generous expression 
of confidence and assurance of substantial aid on the part of the 
Chicago Bar, Prof. Booth accepted the proposal and entered at 
once upon the work. Judge John M. Wilson and Grant Good- 
rich, of the Superior Court of Chicago, volunteered to assist him 
during the first year. The school was opened in September, 
1859, with twelve students, David Dudley Field, of New York, 
delivering the opening address. The attendance had increased 
to the number of forty or more in the fall of 1861, when upon 
the call for volunteers for the war, the patriotic response was so 
general that the class was at once reduced to seven. During the 
progress of the war, and for some time afterwards, the attendance 
was so small that for want of funds to employ an assistant, Prof. 
Booth was compelled to assume nearly the whole burden of con- 
ducting the school, besides which he found it necessary to engage 
in practice for his own support. In 1862, and for two or three 
years ensuing, Hon. H. B. Hurd was associated in the manage- 
ment of the school, and rendered much valuable assistance. In 
1867 Hon. I. G. Wilson, now Judge of the Appellate Court for 
the First District, was engaged in the school for a year, proving 
a successful and very satisfactory instructor. Subsequently, R. 
Biddle Roberts, Esq., John A. Hunter, Esq., a graduate of the 
school, and Yan Buren Denslow, Esq., were successively em- 
ployed, and labored earnestly and efficiently in the cause of legal 
education. Many lawyers, now in successful practice in this and 
other States, will long retain pleasant recollections of the services 
of these gentlemen in their behalf. But during the whole period, 
from the commencement of the school until the fall of 1870, the 
chief burden and labor of instruction was borne by Prof. Booth. 



The Union College of Law. 679 

Besides attending to his own department, whenever for any 
cause his associates were unable to attend to their duties, he took 
the vacant place, and* during nearly half of the period aforesaid, 
he had no assistance whatever. 

In July, 1870, concurrently with the adoption of the new con- 
stitution, Prof. Booth was elected to the bench of the Circuit 
Court of Cook county, and for a season retired from active duty 
in the school, only giving an occasional lecture. 

The great fire of 1871 temporarily broke up the school, but the 
students soon rallied under the charge of Professors Roberts and 
Hunter, who continued to perform the duty of instruction until 
the following summer, when they both retired from the service. 
In September, IS 72, at the usual time of opening the school for 
the fall term, a class of twenty pupils having presented them- 
selves for instruction, and no one appearing to perform the duty, 
Judge Booth volunteered to teach them gratuitously, devoting 
an hour in the morning before going into court, and another hour 
in the evening after adjournment. In this manner the school 
was kept from disbanding until February following, when Prof. 
Denslow partially relieved him of a duty which was becoming 
somewhat burdensome. Judge Booth, however, still continued 
to render gratuitous service to the extent of teaching an hour 
each day after court, during nearly the whole of his official term 
of nine years. 

In the summer of 1873 the Northwestern University deter- 
mined to carry into effect its long cherished plan of connecting 
a Law Department with that institution. The friends and promo- 
ters of legal education w T ere strongly impressed with the convic- 
tion that the existence of tw r o rival law schools in Chicago w r ould 
be highly detrimental, and that the end in view could be best 
served by a union of the two Universities in the support of a 
single school. Overtures were therefore made between parties 
representing these two institutions, respectively, which resulted 
in a concession by the University of Chicago, to the Northwest- 
ern University, of an equal and joint interest in the Law r School. 
By this plan the Union College of Law r , which is the name as- 
sumed under the new arrangement, is placed under the control 
of a joint Board of Management, consisting of eight gentlemen, 
four of whom are chosen by the trustees of each University, the 
President of the University being included in the number. Con- 
currently with the adoption of the new plan, the corps of profes- 
sors was enlarged by the election of Hon. Lyman Trumbull and 
Phillip Myers, Esq., on behalf of the Northwestern University, 
and Hon. James P. Doolittle on behalf of the University of Chi- 
cago, Prof. Denslow being also retained on behalf of the latter 



680 The Union College of Law. 

institution. Judge Booth also continued his connection with the 
school, as Dean of the Law Faculty. 

Under this arrangement the Union College of Law has enjoyed 
a higher degree of prosperity than ever before. The professors 
now in charge are Hon. Henry Booth, L. L. D., Dean; Hon. Wil- 
liam W. Far well, A. M., late judge of the Circuit Court of Cook 
county, on the Chancery side; Hon. Harvey B. Hurd, reviser of 
the Statutes of Illinois; Hon. Marshall D. Ewell, L. L. D., au- 
thor of the work on Fixtures bearing his name, and a law writer 
of acknowledged ability; and Dr. Nathan S. Davis, M. D., L. L. 
D., Lecturer upon Medical Jurisprudence. The usual number 
of students in attendance at present is about one hundred. The 
College has adopted a graded course of stud} r , requiring for its 
completion two years, of thirty-six weeks each. The diploma ad- 
mits to the bar, and it is the aim of the faculty to secure thor- 
oughness, and to elevate the standard of legal education. Prac- 
tice in moot courts, training in forensic speaking and extempo- 
raneous debate, constitute part of the exercises of the school. 
The most serious obstacle which the Union College of Law has 
to contend with, is that presented by the numerous law schools 
springing up' in the West, some of them offering a course of 
study requiring one short school year for its completion; others 
occupying two years, of twenty-four weeks each; all necessarily 
superficial by reason of the brevity of the term of study — all 
lacking the thorough drill given in this institution, but at the 
same time presenting to the student the tempting offer of a di- 
ploma without much hard study, and the hope of an easy access 
to the bar. With such institutions the Union College of Law 
can enter into no competition, but relying upon the just appreci- 
ation of the legal profession and of the public, will strive to de- 
serve success, as well as to win it. 

This school has no endowment whatever; the fund originally 
contributed by Mr. Hoyne for that purpose, having unfortunately 
been lost in the financial embarrassments of the parent institution. 
The moderate compensation of the professors is derived wholly 
from what remains of the tuition fees, after deducting therefrom 
the rent of rooms and other incidental expenses. Consequently 
the professors find it necessary to pursue other business to obtain a 
support. This is unfortunate iri some respects. To come before 
the class wearied with the labors of the brush, or the contests of the 
bar, is to teach under great disadvantage. The professor should be 
in a situation to give his freshest energies and best thoughts to 
his work. Whether the Union College of Law will ever be so 
happily circumstanced that its professors can devote their whole 
time to the business of instruction, is a problem for the future. 



The Union College of Law. 681 

Such a consummation is perhaps too much to expect. While it 
is considered that all educational institutions require endowment 
or public support to secure the best results, Law Schools of all 
others seem to be least favored; yet, it would seem that there 
might well be a public and general interest taken in the support 
of schools for the training of those who are to mold the legislation 
of the State for good or evil, and who must be depended on for 
the administration of justice. 

This sketch would be quite defective without mentioning in 
terms of the highest commendation the liberality of the Law In- 
stitute, a corporation composed of gentlemen of the Chicago Bar 
in opening the door of its excellent library to students of the 
Union College of law, free of charge. 



DIE FREIE PRESSE OF CHICAGO. 

By Max. Ebkrhaedt. 

The first number of the Freie Presse was issued in Chicago of July 2, 1871 : 
it was then published as a weekly, and was in sympathy with the Liberal 
wing of the Republican party, and subsequently proved a very keen and able 
advocate of the movement which, as we all know, resulted in the nomination of 
Horace Greely for the Presidency. The great fire which occurred not many 
months after the paper had been started, interfered with the issue of but one 
number. The paper was published as a weekly until February 5, 1872, when it 
began to be issued as a daily and weekly, besides having a separate issue on 
Sunday. Though started without the aid of much capital, its rapid growth and 
success as a ready spokesman, and an unflinching advocate of a broad Liberal 
policy within the Republican party, are but evidence of the energy and perse- 
verance which Mr. Michaelis has devoted to the business and editorial manage- 
ment of the paper. It is now being published by the German American Pub- 
lishing Company, and employs 108 persons in its various departments. It still 
maintains its position as an independent Republican newspaper, and provides a 
larger number of Germans with reading matter than any German newspaper 
concern in the country. The Freie Presse is entirely free from debt, and its 
business is managed on a sound financial basis, and with a view to a ready and 
strict discharge of all its obligations. It is one of the many enterprises in the 
city of Chicago which testify to the rapid growth, not only of the Western me- 
tropolis, but of the entire Northwest. 



THE GEEAT FIKE OF 1ST1. 

" A voice is ringing in the air, 

A tale is trembling on the wire, 
The people shout in wild despair: 

'Chicago is on fire.'"* 

In the year 1871 A. D., and the year 38 of the existence of 
Chicago as a city, on the 7th, 8th and 9th of October, occurred 
the great fires. They mark an episode in Chicago history never 
to be forgotten. The official census of the city for 1870 was 
298,977. Its population at the time of the fires, one year later, 
at a prudent estimate, may be set down eight per cent, more, 
making 322,895. A small portion only of these were born here. 
They had been drawn hither by those incentives which the local- 
ity offered for speculation, not only in the rise of real estate, but 
in the facilities which the place offered as an emporium for the 
sale of every kind of merchandise, to supply the increasing wants 
of the great Northwest in the building up process in which she 
was then, and must still for many years, be engaged, before she 
will have taken upon herself the conditions of political and social 
maturity. 

The extra stimulus which the war had given to the increase of 
business in Chicago had subsided, and a lull in that impulsive 
haste that had long been a distinguishing feature here, had set- 
tled upon the city. The volume of staple business was without 
diminution, the real estate market was firm, and the demand for 
this important auxiliary to wealth was healthy; but yet there 
was evidently an undercurrent manifest in moneyed circles, sig- 
nifying that prices of it would not soon again advance, at least, 
by any eccentric movement. After the war was over, a general 
expectation followed that prices for everything would fall imme- 
diately, and as one, two, three and four years had passed without 
any serious reduction, either in goods or real estate, the people 
of Chicago had begun to believe that no such destiny was in store 
for them. Such was the feeling in the spring of 1871, 

The latter part of the summer and autumn following passed 
without rain in the entire Northwest. The whole country was 
go exhausted of moisture that even the night refused her cus- 
tomary allowance of dew on the vegetation, and the grass was 
crisp beneath the feet of the hungry cattle of the pasture. The 

* " The Fall of Chicago," a poem written by Mrs. S. B. Olsen, while the fire 
was burning, and published in a pamphlet. 

(682) 



The Great Fire of 1871. G83 

earth was dry as ashes to the depth of three feet, and the peaty 
bogs of the marsh were as combustible as the contents of the 
furnace. Southern winds prevailed, bringing warmth without 
moisture, and fanned the forests into universal tinder. Even the 
summer's growth of the prairie would feed a flame in places 
where it had not been grazed down or mowed. Chicago was noc 
unlike the country around in dryness, and, unfortunately, the 
well-built buildings of stone and brick which composed her cen- 
tral portions were partly surrounded by cheap wooden buildings, 
characteristic of all Western cities of sudden growth. It was 
among these that a lire broke out a little before ten o'clock on 
the night of October 7, 1871, on Clinton street, near its crossing 
of Yan Buren street, two blocks west of the river. Owing to 
the inflammable character of the building where it. began, and 
the strong wind that blew directly from the south, it quickly 
spread to adjacent buildings, and ere it could be extinguished, 
burnt over the area lying between Yan Buren street on the south, 
Clinton on the west, Adams on the north, and the river on the 
east, except one or two small buildings on the outermost corners 
of the blocks. 

This was the largest fire that had ever visited Chicago up to 
this date. 

The next evening, Sunday night, October 8, at about the same 
hour, a fire broke out six blocks south of the first fire, in a cow- 
stable on the north side of De Koven street, a little east of Jef- 
ferson. The current account at the time attributed it to the 
kicking over of a kerosene lamp by a cow, while its owner, a wo- 
man named O'Leary, was milking her, and in the turmoil of the 
hour, this theory was accepted as a veritable truth, published in 
the newspapers, and even in some of the books giving the his- 
tory of the fire, but no evidence can be found to sustain it, while, 
on the contrary, the following statement would go to disprove it, 
or, at least, involve the cause of the fire in mystery. On the 
following morning, (Monday), Clinton S. Snowden, now city ed- 
itor of the Chicago Times, and Edgar L. Wakeman, now man- 
ager of the Louisville Courier -Journal for Chicago, while the 
fire was yet consuming the buildings in the ^Torth Division, vis- 
ited the scene where it started. Here they found a large crowd 
of excited men speculating on its cause, and here was the hut of 
O'Leary, with doors and windows barred, while her cow stable, 
where all the crowd supposed that the fire originated, was re- 
duced to ashes. The two sight-seers now determined to force a 
passage into the O'Leary hut, and to this end pried up one of the 
back windows with a board and entered the premises. 

They found Mrs. O'Leary in a fearful state of suspense lest 
she should be arrested as an incendiary, but somewhat under the 



GS4 The Great Fire of 1871. 

influence of stimulants to brace up her courage for the occasion. 
She solemnly denied any knowledge of the cause of the fire, and 
if she knows its cause, without doubt she will carry the mysteri- 
ous burden while she lives. The above circumstances are stated 
because they describe the first interviewing of Mrs. O'Leary, and 
both of the gentlemen are now well-known journalists of Chi- 
cago. Their statement accords with the following, from the 
foreman of the first engine company on the ground, which is 
here inserted as official: 

Chicago, November 14, 1880. 

Mr. Rufus Blanchard, Dear Sir: — In compliance with your re- 
quest as to the origin and condition of the great Chicago fire, I 
would state,, that being the first officer at the fire, that I received 
an alarm from the man in watch-tower of engine company No. 
6, one minute in advance of the alarm given by the watchman 
in city hall tower. On my arrival at the fire, which was in the 
alley bounded by Jefferson, Clinton, Taylor and DeKoven 
streets, I discovered three or more barns and sheds on fire. 

I connected to the nearest fire plug, located on the corner of 
Jefferson and DeKoven streets, and went to work. As to whicli 
barn the fire originated in, I could not say. 

As to the fire not being checked in its northward progress, I 
would state in explanation, that previous to the great fire of 
1871, watchmen were stationed in the city hall tower, to keep a 
lookout for fires; and if a fire was discovered by either of the 
men, he called the operator on duty in the fire alarm office, loca- 
ted on the third floor below the watch-tower, and instructed him 
what box to strike. 

On the evening of Oct. 8, 1871, the w r atchman on duty in the 
city hall tower, discovered the fire, and ordered the operator to 
strike a box located one mile southwest from the fire, which he 
should have located one mile northeast, and which would have 
brought the first alarm engines instead of the second, which re- 
sponded to the alarm given by watchman, the first alarm en- 
gines remaining at their respective houses. In conclusion, I 
would state that the above are facts. 

William Musham, 
Foreman of Engine Co. No. 6. 

Whatever might have been its cause, there is no reasonable 
suspicion that it was the result of incendiarism. Before the 
strong south-westerly wind which was then blowing, it penetrated 
diagonally across block after block, at first cutting a swath about 
80 feet wide, gradually increasing in width in passing through 
the cheap wooden buildings in its track, leaving behind a fiery 



TJie Great Fire of 1871. 6S3 

wake, making slow but sure inroads, laterally on both sides, 
At 11:30 it had reached the open ruins of the previous night's 
devastations. Though up to this time the utmost exertions of 
the firemen had been feeble and unavailing against the progress of 
the names, it was hoped that the broad space burnt the night 
before would arrest the northern progress of the fire, and the river 
its eastern progress. But by this time it had attacked the planing 
mills and various manufactures of lumber along the west side of 
the river, between Taylor and Yan Buren streets, and a living 
mass of fire, covering a hundred acres of combustibles, shot up 
into the clouds, lighting up the midnight horn* with a sheet of 
flame, which dashed hope of arresting its career to the ground. 
At one bound the wind carried burning brands, not only across 
the river, but even to Franklin Street. These newly kindled 
fires immediately spread, and the South Side was ablaze; and now 
it assumed proportions that exceeded in magnitude its intensity 
thus far. The whole South Division was now thoroughly alarmed, 
it being evident that not only the entire business area of the city 
must burn, but nearly the entire Xorth Division lay in the track 
of the destroyer in its irresistible progress before the wind. Still 
a ray of hope was left to the Xorth-siders, and to the owners of 
the Tribune building also, which was supposed to be fire proof. 
This hope was dispelled two hours later, as will appear from the 
following account, written in Sheahan & Upton's History, from 
notes as they viewed the scene from the upper windows of the 
Tribune building: 

(; About one o'clock, a cloud of black smoke rose in the south- 
west, which, colored by the lurid glare of the flames, presented a 
remarkable picture. Due west another column of smoke and 
fire rose, while the north was lighted with flying cinders and 
destructive brands. In ten minutes more, the whole horizon to 
the west, as far as could be seen from the windows, was a fire 
cloud with flames leaping up along the whole line, just showing 
their heads and subsiding from view like tongues of snakes. Five 
minutes more wrought a change. Peal after peal was sounded 
from the Court House bell. Tlie fire was on La Salle street, had 
swept north, and the Chamber of Commerce began to belch forth 
smoke and flame from windows and ventilators. The east wing 
of the Court House was alight; then the west wing; the towel- 
was blazing on the south side, and at two o'clock the whole build- 
ing was in a sheet of flame. The Chamber of Commerce burned 
with a bright steady flame. The smoke in front grew denser for 
a minute or two, and then bursting into a blaze from Monroe to 
Madison streets, proclaimed that Farwell Hall and the buildings 
north and south of it were on fire. At 2.10 o'clock the Court 
House tower was a glorious sight. At 2.15 o'clock the tower 



686 The Great Fire of 187 L 

fell, and in two minutes more a crash announced the fall of the 
interior of the building. The windows of the office were hot, and 
the flames gave a light almost dazzling in its intensity. It be- 
came evident that the whole block from Clark to Dearborn, and 
from Monroe to Madison, must go; that the block from Madison to 
Washington must follow; Portland Block was ablaze, while every- 
thing from Clark to Dearborn, on "Washington street, was on fire. 
At 2.30 the fire was half-way down Madison street; the wind 
blew a hurricane; the firebrands were hurled along the ground 
Math incredible force against everything that stood in their way. 
Then the flames shot up in the rear of Reynolds' block, and the 
Tribune building seemed doomed. An effort was made to save 
the files and other valuables, which were moved into the compos- 
ing room, but the building stood like a rock, lashed on both sides 
by raging waves of flame, and it was abandoned. It was a fire 
proof building; and there were not a few who expected to see it 
stand the shock. The greatest possible anxiety was felt for it, as 
it was the key to the whole block, including McYicker's Theatre, 
and protected State street and Wabash and Michigan avenues, north 
of Madison street. When the walls of Reynolds' Block fell, and 
Cobb's building was no more, the prospects of its standing were 
good. Several persons were up-stairs and found it cool and 
pleasant — quite a refreshing haven from the hurricane of smoke, 
dust and cinders that assailed the eyes. 

"Mean while the fire had swept along northward and eastward. 
The Briggs House, the Sherman House, the Tremont House, had 
fallen in a few minutes. The bridges from Wells to Rush street 
were burning; the Northwestern Depot was in a blaze, and from 
Van Buren street on the south, far over into the north side, from 
the river to Dearborn street, the whole country was a mass of 
smoke, flames and ruin. It seemed as if the city east of Dearborn 
street and to the river would be saved. The hope was strength- 
ened when the walls fell of ITonore's noble block without ignit- 
ing that standing opposite. The vacant lot to the south seemed 
to protect it, and at seven o'clock on Monday morning the whole 
of the region designated was considered saved, no fire being 
visible except a smouldering fire in the barber's shop under the 
Tribune office, which being confined in brick walls, was not con- 
sidered dangerous. Every effort was made to quench it, but 
the water works had burned, and the absence of water, while it 
announced how far north the flames had reached, forbade any 
hope of quenching the fire below. 

There was one remarkable turning point in this fire, in which 
everything was remarkable; and that was at Madison street bridge, 
where every one expected to see the fire re-cross to the west side, 
and commence upon a new path of destruction. Directly across 



The Great Fire of 1871. 687 

this bridge were the Oriental Flouring Mills, which were saved 
from destruction by the immense steam force pump attached to 
the mill, by which a powerful stream of water was thrown upon 
the exposed property, hour after hour. This pump undoubtedly 
saved the West Division from a terrible conflagration, for if the 
Oriental Mills had burned, the combustible nature of the ad- 
joining buildings and adjacent lumber yards would have insured 
a scene of devastation too heart-sickening for contemplation. 

The scene presented when the fire was at its height in the 
South Division, is well nigh indescribable. The huge stone and 
brick structures melted before the fierceness of the flames as a 
snow-flake melts and disappears in water, and almost as quickly. 
Six-story buildings would take fire, and disappear forever from 
sight, in Hve minutes by the watch. In nearly every street the 
flames would enter at the rears of buildings, and appear simulta- 
neously at the fronts. For an instant the windows would redden, 
then great billows of fire would belch out, and meeting each other, 
shoot up into the air a vivid, quivering column of flame, and 
poising itself in awful majesty, hurl itself bodily several hundred 
feet and kindle new buildings. The intense heat created new 
currents of air. The general direction of the wind was from the 
southwest. This main current carried the fire straight through 
the city, from southwest to north-east, catting a swath a mile in 
width, and then, as if maddened at missing any of its prey, it 
would turn backward in its frenzy and face the fierce wind, mow- 
ing one huge field on the west of the North Division, while in 
the South Division it also doubled on its track at the great Un- 
ion Central Depot, and burned half a mile southward in the 
very teeth of the gale — a gale which blew a perfect tornado, and 
in which no vessel could have lived on the lake. The flames 
sometimes made glowing diagonal arches across the streets, trav- 
ersed by whirls of smoke. At times, the wind would seize the 
entire volume of fire on the front of one of the large blocks, de- 
tach it entirely and hurl it in every direction, in fierce masses of 
flame, leaving the building as if it had been untouched — for an 
instant only, however, for fresh gusts would once more wrap 
them in sheets of fire. The whole air was filled with glowing 
cinders, looking like an illuminated snow storm. At times ca- 
pricious flurries of the gale would seize these flying messengers 
of destruction and dash them down to the earth, hurrying them 
over the pavements, with lightning-like rapidity, firing every- 
thing they touched. Interspersed among these cinders were 
larger brands, covered with flame, which the wind dashed 
through windows and upon awnings and roofs, kindling new 
fires. Strange, fantastic fires of blue, red and green, played 
along the cornices of the buildings. On the banks of the river, 



688 The Great Fire of 1871. 

red hot walls fell hissing into the water, sending up great col- 
umns of spray and exposing the fierce white furnace of heat, 
which they had enclosed. The huge piles of coal emitted dense 
hillows of smoke which hurried along far above the flames be- 
low. If the sight was grand and overpowering, the sound was 
no less so. The flames crackled, growled and hissed. The lime 
stone, of which many of the buildings were composed, as soon 
as it was exposed to heat flaked off, the fragments flew in every 
direction, with a noise like that of continuous discharges of mus- 
ketry. Almost every instant was added the dull, heavy thud of 
falling w T alls, which shook the earth. But above all these sounds, 
there was one other which was terribly fascinating; it was the 
steady roar of the advancing flames — the awfnl diapason in this 
carnival of fire. It was like nothing so much as the united roar 
of the ocean with the howl of the blast on some stormy, rocky 
coast. 

Great calamities always develop latent passions, emotions, and 
traits of character, hitherto concealed. In this case, there w T as a 
world-wide difference in the manner in which men witnessed the 
destruction of all about them. Some were philosophical, eveu 
merry, and witnessed the loss of their own property with a calm 
shrug of the shoulders, although the loss was to bring upon 
them irretrievable ruin. Others clenched their teeth together, 
and witnessed the sight with a sort of grim defiance. Others, 
who were strong men, stood in tears, and some became fairly 
frenzied with excitement and rushed about in an aimless manner, 
doing exactly what they would not have done in their cooler mo- 
ments, and almost too delirious to save their own lives from the- 
general wreck. Of course, the utmost disorder and excitement 
prevailed, for nearly every one was in some, degree demoralized, 
and in the absence both of gas and water, had given up the en- 
tire city to its doom. Mobs of men and women rushed wildly 
from street to street, screaming, gesticulating, and shouting, 
crossing each other's paths, and intercepting each other as if just 
escaped from a mad house. The yards and sidewalk of Michi- 
gan and Wabash avenues for a distance of two miles south of the 
tire limit in the South Division, were choked with household 
goods of every description — the contents of hovels, and the con- 
tents of aristocratic residences, huddled together in inextrica- 
ble confusion. Elegant ladies who hardly supposed themselves 
able to lift the weight of a pincushion, astonished themselves by 
dragging trunks, and carrying heavy loads of pictures and orna- 
mental furniture for a long distance. Some adorned themselves 
with all their jewelry, for the purpose of saving it, and strug- 
gled along through the crowds, perhaps only to lose it at the 
hands of some ruffian. Delicate girls, with red eyes and black- 



The Great Fire of 1871. 689 

ened faces, toiled, hour after hour, to save household goods. 
Poor women staggered along with their arms full of homely 
household wares, and mattresses on their heads, which sometimes 
took lire as they were carrying them. Every few steps along the 
avenues were little piles of household property, or, perhaps, only 
a trunk, guarded by children, some of whom were weeping, and 
others laughing and playing. Here was a man sitting upon 
what he had saved, bereft of his senses, looking at the motley 
throng with staring, vacant eyes; here, a woman, weeping and 
tearing her hair, and calling for her children in utter despair; 
here, children, hand-in-hand, separated from their parents, and 
crying with the heart-breaking sorrow of childhood; here, a wo- 
man, kneeling on the hot ground, and praying, with her crucifix 
before her. One family had saved a coffee-pot and chest of draw- 
ers, and raking together the falling embers in the street, were 
boiling their coffee as cheerily as if at home. Barrels of liquor 
were rolled into the streets from the saloons. The heads were 
speedily knocked in, and men and boys drank to excess, and 
staggered about the streets. Some must have miserably perished 
in the flames, while others wandered away into the unburned dis- 
trict, and slept a drunken sleep upon the sidewalks and in door- 
yards. Thieves pursued their profession with perfect impunity. 
Lake street and Clark street were rich with treasure, and hordes 
of thieves entered the stores, and flung out goods to their fel- 
lows, who bore them away without opposition. Wabash avenue 
was literally choked up with goods of every description. Every 
one who had been forced from the burning portion of the divis- 
ion had brought some articles with them, and been forced to 
drop some, or all ot them. Valuable oil paintings, books, pet 
animals, instruments, toys, mirrors, bedding, and ornamental and 
useful articles of every kind, were trampled under foot by the 
hurrying crowds. The streets leading southward from the fire 
were jammed with vehicles of every description, all driven along 
at top speed. Not only the goods which were deposited in the 
streets took fire, but wagon loads of stuff in transit, also kindled, 
and the drivers were obliged to cut the traces to save the animals. 
There was fire overhead, everywhere, not only on the low, red 
clouds, which rolled along the roofs, but in the air itself, filled 
with millions of blazing fagots, that carried destruction wherever 
they fell. Those who did rescue anything from the burning 
buildings, were obliged to defend it at the risk of their lives. 
Expressmen and owners of every description of wagons, were 
extortionate in their demands, asking from twenty to fifty dollars 
for conveying a small load a few blocks. Even then there was 
no surety that the goods would reach their place of destination, 
as they were often followed by howling crowds, who would 



GOO The Great Fire of 1671. 

snatch the goods from the wagons. Sometimes, thieves got pos- 
session of vehicles, and drove off with rich loads of dry goods, 
jewelry, or merchandise, to out-of-the-way places." 

As early as three o'clock, on the morning of the 9th, the fire 
attacked the North Side. It has not been definitely known 
where it first began, but it is certain that the "Water Works, a 
mile distant from any portion of the blazing South Side, were 
among the first buildings visited; and their speedy destruction, 
cutting off the water supply, all hopes of extinguishing the fire 
fled. Two large elevators on the north bank of the river were 
also in flames immediately afterwards, and the wretched inhab- 
itants living east of Franklin street, beheld with dismay the ap- 
proach of the destroyer both in front and rear. Suddenly the 
entire population seized the most valuable things they could 
carry, and fled, either to the lake shore, or westward across the 
river, or directly before the pursuing enemy, northwardly out 
Clark or Wells Street. Says Mr. Colbert: 

"A terrible panic ensued. There was sudden screaming and 
•dashing about of half-clad women, gathering up such valuables 
as could be suddenly snatched. There was frantic rushing into 
the streets and shouting for vehicles. There was anxious inquiry 
and anon distressed cries for absent protectors — a large portion 
•of the men being on the far side of the river, and in many cases 
unable to reach their homes. Then there was a pell-mell rush 
through the streets, some of the wild faces pushing eagerly in 
this direction and others quite as eagerly in the opposite; and 
children screaming; and shouts resounding; and brands falling 
in showers; and trackmen running each other down; and half- 
drunken, wholly desperate ruffians peering into doors and seizing 
valuables, and insulting women; and oaths from lips unused to 
them, as hot as the flames which leaped and crackled near by; 
and prayers from manly breasts where they had slumbered since 
childhood; and every other sign of turmoil and terror." 

Those who took refuge on the sands of the lake-shore, found 
it a treacherous asylum. There was no escape to the northward, 
for the narrow passes farther in that direction were a sweltering 
current of hot air pouring over the crested margin of the lake, 
like the vomiting of a furnace.. Meantime the heat soon began 
to be almost insupportable where they were, and in this extrem- 
ity, at places, they were forced into the shallow waters of the lake 
to protect themselves from burning till they could be rescued in 
bont^. 

By four o'clock in the afternoon of the 9th, the fire had burned 
out. Its progress against the wind on the South Side was ar- 
rested by the efforts of private citizens and a small military force 
under Gen. Sheridan; but on the North Side it burned as long 



The Great Fire of 1871. 691 

as buildings stood before it, and died away on the open prairie for 
want of fuel. 

In its early stages, after the flames had crossed the river, and 
were rapidly devouring the business portion of the city in the 
South revision. Lind "Block, on the west side of Market Street, 
between Eandolph and Lake, by dint of great exertion on the part 
of some of its tenants, successfully resisted them. The well- 
known house of Puller & Fuller, occupied the central portions of 
this block; and in reply to the writer's inquiry how it was saved. 
Mr. O. F. Fuller stated that while the tire was burning on the 
West Side, and approaching towards them, they took the precau- 
tion to provide an abundant supply of water on each floor of 
their premises, and constantly applied it to the most exposed 
portions of the building when the fire reached their immediate 
vicinity, having previously cut away wooden signs or any other 
combustible material outside. During the greatest heat the 
outside walls of the block were too hot to bear the hand on. but 
still every man remained at his post inside on each floor, subject 
to the order of a sentinel, whose business it was to call them 
away if the building ignited. Three times a retreat was ordered, 
under an impression that combustion had taken place, but hap- 
pily this impression was a false alarm, growing out of the lurid 
glare from adjacent flames, reflected from the windows of the 
building, and. each time the men returned to their posts, where 
they continued to ply water to the heated windows, while was 
raging 

" Fire to right of them, 
Fire to left of them. 
Fire in front of ihem." 

Said Mr. Fuller: i; The fire, viewed from the roof of Lind Block 
at this time, presented phases of thrilling interest. At two o'clock 
a.m.. Market street and the approaches to Lake and Randolph 
street bridges were crowded with loaded vehicles hurrying to the 
AVest Side, and this retreat grew into a stampede when the Gar- 
den City hotel, and the buildings on the Fast side of Market 
street, from Madison to South "Water, ignited. After burning 
fiercely for but a brief space of time, they fell in quick succession 
in the general ruin.'' 

The next morning when the light of the sun was piercing 
through the smoke and flames that now enshrouded the entire 
business portion of the South Division, there stood Lind Block, 
a solitary relict of its former grandeur. Beyond it. toward the 
East, the eye could catch transient glimpses of many a grim 
old ruin in its ragged deformity, amidst the accumulating 
clouds of smoke that rose to the sky in dissolving forms, and told 



692 The Great Fire of 1871. 

the tale of destruction. Besides Lind Block in the South Division, 
the house of Mahlon B. Ogden, in the central track of the fire 
in the North Division, was saved, while all else around it was 
left in ashes. 

Mr. Ogden, shortly after the fire, informed the writer that he 
remained in his house as long as he could without being sur- 
rounded by fire, when he, with his family, retreated with the 
crowd; but that he kept the roof of his house covered with wet 
carpets while he was in it, and it being in the inside of a square, 
with trees all around, as if by a miracle it did not burn. 

No attempt will here be made to record personal incidents of 
the fire. These are almost infinite, and their records may be 
found in the several large volumes published immediately after 
the fire, but the following account of the action of the city au- 
thorities, taken from the Report of the Chicago Relief and Aid 
Society, is an historical document which shows the elastic force 
of the people of Chicago in their promptness to grapple with the 
duties before them: 

" The homeless people of the Sonth Side were for the most 
part received into the abodes of their more fortunate neighbors, 
or taken to the hearts and hospitalities of those to whom a day 
before they were utter strangers, without formalities or ceremonies, 
for a kindred sorrow which had left no human interest untouched 
had done its work. 

" Those of the North Division had betaken themselves for the 
night to the sands of the lake shore, to Lincoln and other small 
parks, and the Jprairies. Comparatively few had found shelter 
for the night. 

" Those of the West Division who were left homeless were for 
the most part sheltered in the churches and school-houses, and 
on the prairies on the northwest of the city. Comparatively few 
of those who had fled before the flames, had tasted food since 
early Sunday evening, and hunger came to them to add its terrors 
to those of exposure, and in many instances apprehension of 
death. 

" And then came the greatest terror of all, the consciousness of 
the fact that families had been separated; husbands and wives, 
parents and children were missing. The flight had been so 
rapid, and in all directions the thoroughfares had been so ob- 
structed, and in some cases utterly impassable, by the crowding 
of vehicles and masses of 'people, and the city itself a wave of 
fire — it is no marvel that under these circumstances, thousands 
tor the time were lost sight of, and became lonely wanderers, and 
that hundreds perished in the flames. 

"The seeds of permanent or temporary disease sown, the bodily 
suffering and mental anguish endured, can never have statistical 
computation, or adequate description. 



The Great Fire of 1871. 693 

"The bodies of the dead, not less than three hundred in number, 
who perished in the flames, were given interment at the county 
burying ground. 

"The city authorities were prompt in their endeavors to bring 
order out of the chaos which, in some measure, we have assayed 
to describe. The Mayor telegraphed to neighboring cities, first 
of all, for engines to help stay the ravages of the lire, and for 
bread to feed the homeless and destitute." 

A council of city officers was held, who issued and signed the 
following, which was the first proclamation from the Mayor and 
Government: 

PROCLAMATION. 

"Whereas, Id the providence of God, to whose will we humbly submit, a 
terrible calamity has befallen our city, which demands of us our best efforts for 
the preservation of order and the relief of suffering : 

Be it known, That the faith and credit of the city of Chicago are hereby 
pledged for the necessaiy expenses for the relief of the suffering. 

Public order will be preserved. The police and special police now being ap- 
pointed will be responsible for the maintenance of the peace and the protection 
of property. 

All officers and men of the Fire Department and Health Department will act 
as special policemen without further notice. 

The Mayor and Comptroller will give vouchers for all supplies furnished by 
the different relief committees. 

The headquarters of the City Government will be at the Congregational 
Church, corner of West Washington and Ann streets. 

All persons are warned against any act tending to endanger property. Per- 
sons caught in any depredation will be immediately arrested. 

With the help of God, order and peace and private property will be pre- 
served. 

The City Government and the committee of citizens pledge themselves to the 
community to protect them, and prepare the way for a restoration of public 
and private welfare. 

It is believed the fire has spent its force, and all will soon be well. 
R, B. Masox, Mayor. 
George Taylor? Comptroller. 

(By R. B. Mason.) 
Charles C. P. Holden, President Common Council. 
T. B. Browx, President Board 01 Police. 

October 9, 1871, 2 p. m. 

Promptly following the above proclamation, and growing out 
of the exigencies of the day, or the hour, as it came, others were 
issued; and no better account of the action of the municipal gov- 
ernment can be given than that which is contained in these sev- 
eral official papers, and therefore, without comment, which would 
be needless, the text of these proclamations, which in some in- 
stances were only fly-sheets, is herein given. 

BREAD ORDINANCE.— NOTICE. 

Chicago. October 10,1871. 
The following ordinance was passed at a meeting of the Common Council of 
the city of Chicago, on the 10th day of October, A. D.. 1871 : 



694 The Great Fire of 1871. 

An Ordinance 

Be it ordained by the Common Council of the City of Chicago : — 

Section 1. That the price of bread in the City of Chicago for the next ten 
days is hereby fixed and established at eight (8) cents per loaf of twelve ounces, 
and at the same rate for all loaves of less or greater weight. 

Sec. 2. Any person selling or attempting to sell any bread within the limits 
of the City of Chicago, within said ten days, at a greater price than is fixed in 
this ordinance, shall be liable to a penalty of ten (10) dollars for each and every 
offense, to be collected as other penalties for violation of City Ordinances. 

Sec. 3. This Ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its 
passage. 

Approved October 10, 1871. 

Attest: R. B. MASON, Mayor. 

C. T. HoTCHKiss, City Clerk. 

MAYOR'S PROCLAMATION— ADVISORY AND PRECAUTIONARY. 

1. All citizens are requested to exercise great caution in the use of fire in 
their dwellings, and not to use kerosene lights at present, as the city will be 
without a full supply of water for probably two or three days. 

2. The following bridges are passable, to wit : All bridges (except Yan Bu- 
i en and Adams streets) from Lake Street south, and all bridges over the North 
Branch of the Chicago River. 

3. All good citizens who are willing to serve are requested to report at the 
corner of Ann and Washington streets, to be sworn in as special policemen. 

Citizens are requested to organize a police for each block in the city, and to 
send reports of such organization to the police headquarters, corner of Union 
and West Madison streets. 

All persons needing food will be relieved by applying at the following 
places : — 

At the corner of Ann and Washington; Illinois Central Railroad Round- 
house. 

M. S. R. R. — Twenty-second Street station. 

C. B. & Q R. R.— Canal Street Depot. 

St. L. & A. R. R.— Near Sixteenth Street. 

C. & N. W. R. R. — Corner of Kinzie and Canal streets. 

All the public school-houses, and at nearly all the churches. 

4. Citizens are requested to avoid passing through the burnt districts until 
the dangerous walls left standing can be leveled. 

5. All saloons are ordered to be closed at 9 p. m. every day for one week, 
under a penalty of forfeiture of license. 

6. The Common Council have this day by ordinance fixed the price of bread 
at eight (8) cents per loaf of twelve ounces, and at the same rate for loaves of a less 
or greater weight, and affixed a penalty of ten dollars for selling, or attempting 
to sell, bread at a greater rate within the next ten days. 

7. Any hackman, expressman, drayman, or teamster charging more than the 
regular fare, will have his license revoked. 

All citizens are requested to aid in preserving the peace, good order, and 
good name of our city. 
Oct. 10, 1871. R. B. MASON, Mayor. 

In addition to the action of the city authorities, Lieut. General 
P. H. Sheridan, whose military headquarters were here, at the ear- 
nest request of Mr. Mason, the Mayor, and many prominent citizens 
of Chicago, consented to declare martial law for the preservation 
of order throughout the city, as well as to protect from lire what 
remained of it, and on the 11th of October a proclamation was 



The Great Five of 1871. 695 

issued by him to this effect. Two days previous to this, while 
the fire was still spreading on the North Side, he had ordered a 
company of frontier soldiers from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to 
be sent by rail to Chicago, and as soon as they arrived they were 
detailed in squads of about twenty each to guard the various 
places along the outer edge of the burnt district that needed pro- 
tection. Throughout the South Division burnt, were many bank 
vaults still buried beneath heated bricks and stone, in an uncertain 
condition. At night the soldiers detailed to guard these T ~°re 
quartered on the premises of Messrs. Fuller & Fuller, which lis*, 
been saved from the general wreck as already told. And in con- 
versation with Mr. Fuller, the informant of the writer, as to the 
fidelity with which they executed their trust, the praise which he 
gave these noble soldiers should not be omitted. They were 
strictly temperate, many of them teetotalers, and some of them 
old weather-beaten veterans as noble in sentiment as they were 
brave and faithful, and an honor to the country in wmose service 
they had enlisted. The debt of gratitude which Chicago owes 
them challenges this acknowledgement. 

The extent of the fire may be summed up in the folio wing- 
statement, which has been carefully taken from various records 
of the event: On the West Side, the burnt district measured 
194 acres, and the number of burnt buildings was about 500, 
most of them being of an inferior class. 

In the South Division 460 acres were burned over, on which 
stood 3,650 buildings, which constituted substantially the banks, 
wholesale stores, hotels, and the general heavy business blocks 
of the city included, with many of its first-class private dwell- 
ings, added to which was a district in the southwest portion, 
where many poor people lived. In the North Division 1,470 
acres were burnt over, and 13,300 buildings destroyed, leaving 
but about four per cent of the buildings standing in the entire 
division, and those of the poorest class. The total number of 
acres burnt over was 2,124, and of buildings destroyed about 
17,450. About 100,000 people were rendered homeless, which 
included guests at hotels and boarding-houses. Of these, 
some thousands were gathered in squads on the prairies outside 
the city on the morning of the 9th, and not a few made the 
earth their bed on the night of the 10th. Every train of rail- 
road cars that left the city for several days was loaded to its ut- 
most with the fugitives. The most of them had no means where- 
with to pay their fare. In such cases, the railroad companies, 
with exemplary generosity, carried them free till the Relief and 
Aid Society had organized, to make provision for the sufferers 
On the 10th relief began to come in from the country towns near 
by. Never before had their sympathies been so awakened. 



(>9G The Great Fire of 1871. 

Mothers, in their imagination, heard little children crying for 
bread on the open prairie, and saw whole families lying on the 
ground, bereft of everything but natural claims on humanity, 
and the next trains that went to the city were loaded with free 
bread, milk, blankets, and such other things as the body stands 
most in need of when stripped of everything but its wants. 

To detail all the means used to relieve the immediate wants of 
the victims would be inconsistent with time 5 and space to record 
them. It was one of those great waves that roll over mankind, 
burying them so deep beneath its crest as to drown out selfish- 
ness for the time, and open an unfrequented path to many hearts. 
Dormant passions and affections were awakened into being, that 
else might have slumbered and died ere they had blossomed into 
life and beauty. Like a flash, the cry of distress went through 
the world, and gathered force as it traveled. News of the de- 
struction of armies in one great chasm of death had been told 
before till recitals of such events palled upon the senses; but this 
was a great social disaster, visited upon effeminate grace and 
beauty, quick and sudden, dashing ambition to the ground, and 
withering life's sweetest hopes; sundering the dearest associations 
and robbing the heart of home treasures, so highly prized by the 
most refined people. 

From St. Louis, Cincinnati, Detroit, New York, Boston, and 
nearly all the large cities of the United States, and from many 
cities in England, Germany and France, came prompt relief. 
The most of "the cash sent from these places was taken into the 
custody of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, and by them dis- 
pensed to the sufferers with as provident a care as could have 
been expected under such a pressure. 

The amounts contributed from the world, (the great field of 
charity for this occasion), was but little short of $3,000,000. The 
number of lives lost in the fire can never be told. It has been 
estimated to exceed 300. The charred remains of many were 
found, but no such number as this. 

The amount of property destroyed in the fire, by a careful es- 
timate by Elias Colbert, was $192,000,000. Not more than one- 
fourth of this was covered by insurance, and of the amounts in- 
sured, not more than fifty per cent was paid, some insurance 
companies not paying more than ten per cent, while others paid 
in full. 

The heads of families and business portion of the hundred 
thousand victims of the fire may be divided into several classes. 
The portion of them whose wealth was in stocks or bonds had 
lost nothing but their ink-stands and writing-desks, and the op- 
portunities now offered for speculation, seemed to give promise 
of an abundant harvest out of the situation. Of the merchants 



The Great Fire of 1871. 697 

who had both capital and credit yet in reserve, to begin anew, a 
prospect opened for business perhaps never before equaled. To 
those merchants who had lost everything, little consolation could 
come, and yet many of these, availing themselves of an untar- 
nished reputation, immediately began again on credit, and not a 
few of them made a success of it. Out of the recoil that came 
from such an overwhelming calamity quickly sprang up a buoy- 
ant feeling in the minds of everyone. !No timid counsels pre- 
vailed. Redivivus was the watchword. Dimension stone, brick, 
mortar, lime, marble, red sandstone, granite, cement, iron pillars, 
girders, floor tile, sand, glass, joist, scantling and boards were at 
a premium. Autumn hung on into the winter months, and fire- 
proof buildings sprang up rapidly amidst the desolations of the 
burnt district. Meantime, while these were in course of construc- 
tion, every empty place on the West Side, and far out in the 
South Division, was rented at high figures, and frequently might 
be found the most enterprising merchants doing business in some 
dingy, cavernous quarters on the "West Side, that for years before 
the fire had grown moldy for the want of tenants. For several 
months, Canal street, between Lake and Madison, was the center 
of business. Here the newspapers set up their presses, and by 
dint of courage and resolution to be found nowhere outside of 
Chicago, soon reproduced their respective sheets, undiminished 
in size and unctious with grit. All the while capital flowed into 
Chicago, and the building mania was at fever heat. Nobody 
seemed to think it could be overdone. They did not stop to con- 
sider that the improved class of buildings which were being sub- 
stituted for the old ones would afford convenience and room for 
a greatly increased amount of business. Add to this the extra 
room for business where private houses had been burnt, close by 
the business portions of Chicago, which would never be replaced, 
on account of their proximity to the turmoil of a commercial 
emporium, and it is not strange that an unnecessarily large area 
was left open for the wants of business. These conditions caused 
a temporary lull in building up the burnt district after the work 
had been going on two years, for which reason there are still 
(1881) many vacant lots where the moldering walls of old build- 
ings, burnt in the fire, stand as reminders of the event; but no 
great length of time can now transpire till the recent increasing 
demand for more stores and offices, as well as a demand beyond 
the present supply for private dwellings, will not only fill up va- 
cant lots in the burnt district, but enlarge the area of the city, 



60S Land Titles in Cook County, 



LAND TITLES IN COOK COUNTY 

BY S. B. CHASE. 



The destruction by the great Chicago fire in 1871, of the pub- 
lic records of Cook county, gave an unexpected value and public 
importance to all other evidences of titles to real property which 
had been preserved and were accessible. 

The want of the ordinary means of proving ownership of lands 
was especially felt by citizens of Chicago, who, in consequence 
of losing by the fire their homes or sources of income, needed 
money for re-building or to supply their pressing necessities, and 
to obtain it saw no way but to sell or mortgage their real estate. 
These found that not only the records but also a large part of the 
original muniments of their titles had been destroyed; these 
latter having been quite generally held by attorneys or agents 
who had their offices within the burned district — but it was 
also found that several firms engaged in the examination of land 
titles as their exclusive business, had fortunately saved consider- 
ble portions of their memoranda of conveyances, wills, decrees, 
and other matters relating to titles, and that the information 
contained in these would go far towards supplying the requisite 
evidences. 

These private records, or abstract books, as they are usually 
termed, have, since the calamity alluded to, played so important 
a part in the real estate transactions of Chicago, that a brief de- 
scription of their origin and character is not out of place in a 
history of the city. 

The system of private indexes to the public records of convey- 
ances, judgments and tax sales, substantially that now in use in 
hundreds of counties throughout the ^Northwestern States, was 
about the year 1848 devised by Messrs. James H. Rees and Edward 
A. Rucker, two of those early settlers of Chicago whose enterprise 
and sagacity have done *so much towards creating the present 
material prosperity of our city. 

Although Cook county had then but a little over twenty thou- 
sand people, its population and commerce were growing with 
such rapidity as to promise a brilliant future, and to suggest that 
preparations for the greatness to come could hardly be made too 
large or broad in any department of business. The wild specu- 
lation of 1837, and consequent revulsion had wrecked a large part 
of those who had to any extent dealt in real estate in and about 
Chicago. Great carelessness had prevailed in forms of convey- 



Land Titles in Cook County. 699 

nces and in their acknowledgment. Omissions to record were fre- 
quent. Titles were clouded to a considerable extent by judg- 
ments, bankruptcies and tax sales. Public records and indexes 
thereto were quite defective. Searches of title were, to a greater 
or less extent, unreliable, though made by attorneys of skill and 
ability, because they were without the proper facilities for 
accurate work. The remedy for this condition of things proposed 
and applied by Rees & Encker, and their successors, will appear 
when we describe a set of abstract books, as devised by them, 
and now in use in this (Cook) county. 

These consist of, first, Books of Original Entries. These are the 
conveyancer's " Day Books," in which he enters descriptions, in 
their most important particulars, of all instruments filed for 
record in the office of the Recorder of Deeds — each instrument 
being described in the order of its filing. Next, we have numer- 
ous volumes, termed ' ; Indexes," which are the conveyancers' 
"Ledgers." In them he opens a separate account with eacli 
lot or parcel of land in the county, and in this account enters a 
description of every deed, mortgage or other recorded instrument 
relating to such lot, giving the names of the parties thereto, its 
date of record, and some other particulars. Thirdly, we have 
with appropriate nominal indexes thereto, a set of Judgment 
Dockets, showing in the order in which they w T ere commenced, 
the suits prosecuted in courts of record, with memoranda of 
judgments rendered, executions issued, etc. Fourthly, copies or 
abstracts of all sales made at any time of lands for unpaid taxes 
and assessments. 

The great value of these books for immediate use, anticipated 
by Messrs. Rees & Rucker, consisted in the indexes; inasmuch 
as these were to exhibit on a single page, all recorded instru- 
ments relating to any title under examination, which, without 
some such expedient, must be found by a long, careful, tiresome 
search of hours, sometimes of days' duration. It had not how- 
ever escaped their sagacity that a possible loss or destruction, 
total or partial, of public records, might put their books substan- 
tially in the place of them. 

The results of their scheme exceeded their expectations. The de- 
velopment of the Northwestern States, and the growth of its great 
metropolis, far exceeded the wildest dreams of the most enthusi- 
astic. Real estate transfers and the conveyancers' business kept 
pace with the progress of population and commerce. The au- 
tumn of 1871 found the abstract system somewhat enlarged, 
and in some details modified, but in all its main features as 
originally planned, in successful operation, employing in its 
maintenance and application, several firms with 100 to 150 em- 



700 Land Titles of Cook County. 

ployes, and with an immense accumulation of material gener- 
ally relied on by real estate lawyers, without search of the rec- 
ords themselves, in judging of the validity of land titles. 

Yery much of this material, many valuable volumes of in- 
dexes; thousands of pages of copies of abstracts, great quantities 
of original memoranda, were destroyed in the great conflagration. 
So much however was saved by the three principal abstract es- 
tablishments then in existence, that, with few exceptions, a con- 
nected history from the government down, can still be given of 
every lot in the county, not, it is true, with the particularity and 
fullness in details which could have been obtained from the rec- 
ords, but to such an extent has the reliabilty of the abstract 
books and papers still preserved from the old abstract offices 
been demonstrated by some nine years' experience, that it is safe 
to say that in none of the great cities of this country are real es- 
tate titles more certain, and less likely to be disturbed, or prop- 
erly exhibited with greater dispatch and at a less expense. ' 

JSTo doubt the originator of this system, like many of the found- 
ers of Chicago, "builded better than they knew," but many of 
the results were such as would have resulted without the occur- 
rence of unusual forces. The correct anticipation of these re- 
sults was a most fortunate thing for Chicago, and entitles these 
two gentlemen to much credit for foresight and sagacity. 

Both were, in fact, men of worth and intellect. Mr. Rucker 
was a lawyer by profession, and a man of acute mind. He, how- 
ever, disposed of his interest to Mr. Rees as early as 1850, while 
the system had hardly been perfected or tried. He died several 
years since. Mr. Rees, alone or associated with others, prosecu- 
ted the business till 1862, continuing in it long enough to fix the 
character and assure the success of the enterprise. He was one 
of the old settlers of Chicago — a man of sound judgment and 
unblemished integrity — and although resolute of purpose and 
persistent in any line of conduct he might decide on, had an 
even and amiable temper, that very tenderty endeared to him 
those closely associated in business interests or in the circle of 
family friends. He has very recently passed away, leaving with 
all the many who knew him a memory honored and loved as that 
of an upright and generous man. Probably no act of his long 
and useful business life has been so fruitful of lasting and bene- 
ficial results to the public as the establishment of the first "Ab- 
stracts of Title" in Illinois. 



Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 701 



FINANCIAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO. 

BY JAMES W. SHEAHAN, OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. 

The State of Illinois was admitted into the Union on the 3d day 
of December, 1818, and during the years that have intervened has 
had a memorable history in the matter of debt, poverty, bankruptcy 
and taxation. Her record in these particulars is, in many respects, 
similar to that of many other States, old and new; but her 
record is unstained by dishonor, is free from all taint of repudi- 
ation, and her present glorious condition of wealth, prosperity 
and high commercial as well as political grandeur is a fitting 
result of her steadfast devotion to honor and justice in all her 
financial dealings. On the last day of 1880, Illinois will be free 
from debt of every kind, with a handsome surplus in the treasury 
and a steady income, which lessens the ordinary burden of main- 
taining one of the best administered and most charitable State 
governments of the Union. 

A brief sketch of the origin, the growth and the great magni- 
tude of her public debt; of the courage and fidelity with which 
her people, rejected under the strong temptations of poverty, des- 
titution, fraud, absolute loss of credit and the example of other 
States, every suggestion of repudiation ; the steps they took to 
meet that debt by self-imposed taxation, and the final triumph 
of honest purposes, honestly carried into execution, may find a 
fitting place in the history of the great Northwest. 

The new State at the time of its admission contained about 
50,000 inhabitants, the census of June, 1820, showing a popula- 
tion of 55, 211, and this whole population resided, with few excep- 
tions, south of a line drawn west from Alton to the Wabash 
River. 

The science of government and the principles of political econ- 
omy were but little studied or known in those days. The inhab- 
itants of Illinois were mainly from the Southern States, and their 
habits, traditions and general opinions were widely different from 
the more advanced systems of the Northern and Eastern States. 
One of the peculiarities of the day, and, until very recently, ad- 
hered to in some of the Southern States, w T as a resort to public 
lotteries, instead of to taxation, in order to raise money to meet 
public expenditures. When the war with Great Britain closed, 
the population of the territory was small, and money was a rar- 
ity. Peltry found a ready sale, and became a medium of ex- 



702 Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 

change; values were computed in deer and coon skins. The leg- 
islature of the territory were ready converts to the system (which 
still has its advocates) of making money cheap and plenty by the 
mere process of printing. Ohio and Kentucky had met the scarc- 
ity of money by chartering a large number of banks; the notes 
of these banks found their way into Illinois. It was promptly 
discovered and decided that Illinois need be under no obligations 
to these States for currency, so the territorial legislature in 1816 
chartered " The Bank of Illinois," located at Shawneetown, on 
the Ohio river, and a year later another bank at Kaskaskia, and 
still another one at Edwardsville. 

These banks were all banks of issue, and their notes were soon 
put in circulation. To give them credit, the legislature of the 
territory was induced to make them substantially a legal tender; 
that is, it enacted laws staying all legal process for the collection 
of debts unless the creditor would receive the notes. of these 
banks in satisfaction of the execution; and subsequent^ this 
law was made to include, also, the notes of the banks of Ohio, 
Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. Money was thus made plen- 
ty, and it became very cheap, and times were supposed to be 
good. Incidental to this abundance of money, grew the famous 
charter of the city and bank of Cairo, which provided for build- 
ing a magnificent city — the capital to be obtained from the sale 
of lots at $150 each — $50 of which was to be expended in build- 
ing the city, and the other $100 was to constitute the capital of 
the bank. That charter was but a reflex of the popular mind un- 
der the excitement and speculative spirit produced by the great 
inflation. 

It required but a brief time for this condition of affairs to 
collapse. " Everybody was inextricably in debt to everybody." 
(Davidson and Stuve). 

Such was the condition of affairs when, on the first of Janu- 
ary, 1819, the first State government of Illinois was inaugu- 
rated. The currencv was irredeemable; £old and silver there 
was none. The legislature of the new State sought to avert the 
coming crash by chartering a new Bank of Illinois, with a Capi- 
tal of two millions of dollars. This bank, however, failed to 
organize. 

In 1820, the banks of Illinois and those of all the neighbor- 
ing States suspended, many of them were bankrupt, and the 
brief holiday of inflation was succeeded by the gloom of fi- 
nancial ruin. The legislature of 1820, '21 met the difficulty 
by chartering "The Illinois State Bank," based wholly on the 
credit of the State. The parent bank was located at Vandal i a, 
with branches at Edwardsville, Brownsville, Shawneetown, and 



Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 703 

one in Edwards county. The notes were to be loaned to the peo- 
ple in sums of $100, on personal security: and all sums over 
8100, and not exceeding $1,000, to any one borrower, on real es- 
tate of double the value of the loan. The bank notes bore in- 
terest at two per cent., and were made legal tender to the extent 
that executions for debts were stayed, unless endorsed, payable 
in bills of the bank. $300,000 of these notes were ordered to 
be issued directly, and that sum was soon issued. The notes at 
once depreciated, and as the State revenue was paid in this money, 
the operations of the government were clogged. The notes were 
payable ten years after date. In 1831, the State borrowed $100,- 
000 of Col. Thomas Wiggins, and with the money redeemed the 
notes and wound up the bank. Directly and indirectly, it is esti- 
mated that the State lost $500,000 by this abortive scheme of 
banking.* 

This was in 1831, and the date is significant, as showing the 
fleeting effect of even the most costly experience. 

In January, 1835, just four years after the collapse and wind- 
ing up of the u Illinois State Bank," at such heavy cost, the leg- 
islature again ventured upon the experiment of banking without 
capital, and making money cheap and plenty by the mere issue 
of promises to pay. Severely as the State and the people had al- 
ready suffered by this delusion, the most costly of all its ven- 
tures was now authorized. 

A new State Bank was chartered, with a capital of $1,500,000, 
and the right to increase that capital $1,000,000 more. Six 
branches were authorized. The State w 7 as to take $100,000 of the 
stock, and the remaining $1,400,000 were to be subscribed by 
individuals. The subscriptions to the stock far exceeded the 
amount authorized, and alter the awards, the stock commanded 
13 per centum premium. The note circulation was not to ex- 
ceed two and a half times the sum of the paid up stock. 

The city of Alton at that time aspired to be the controlling 
center of Western trade. Lead from the Galena mines was then 
an important article of trade. The merchants of Alton held 
large interests in the bank, and by the aid of loans, undertook 
to purchase all the lead offered for sale — to corner the entire pro- 
duction. The competition raised the price of lead enormously, 
the fancy prices attracted all the metal to Alton, but it could not 
be sold. Other merchants, by the aid of the bank, engaged in 
like speculations in produce; all proved disastrous. " It was 
estimated," say Davidson and Stuve, " that the bank lost by the 
Alton operations $1,000,000; but these reverses were not gener- 

^Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois 



704 Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 

ally known." So prosperous was the new bank, that a year 
after its charter, the legislature was convened in December- 
January, 1835-6, in special session. The governor recommended 
that the State subscribe to the extra million of dollars of bank 
stock; he represented that the stock was then at 113 and would 
rise to 130, and the State would realize $300,000 in premiums. 
The legislature was not then as advanced as the governor; it 
however, authorized the sale of the $100,000 of stock held by the 
State. 

What the legislature of 1836 hesitated to do, the legislature of 
1837 was prepared to do on a much magnified scale. It added 
$2,000,000 to the capital stock of the bank, the whole increase to 
be taken by the State. 

The old, defunct, suspended "Bank of Illinois," established 
at Shawneetown, in territorial days, was revived with its capital 
stock increased to $1,700,000, of which $1,000,000 was taken by 
the State. These banks were made depositories of all the State 
funds, and for the proceeds of all State Internal Improvement 
bonds. This legislation was in January,1837, and the banks had 
about fairly got in operation when the panic of 1837 occurred. 
In May the banks suspended specie payments, a special session of 
the legislature met in July, and the suspension of the banks was 
legalized. Subsequent legislatures renewed the legalization of 
the suspension, aud the State bank dragged along its paper at a 
large discount, uu til, "In February, 1842, the monster institu- 
tion, with a circulation exceeding $3,000,000, snapped its thread 
of life and passed into dissolution, spreading devastation upon 
every hand, far and wide." (Davidson & Stuve p. 424.) 

The State Bank, and the Bank of Illinois, at Shawneetown, 
were wound up by an act of the legislature January 24, 1843. 
Of the terms of the settlement we will have something to say 
hereafter. 

The refusal of President Jackson to approve the re-chartering 
of the Bank of the United States, though perhaps dictated by the 
highest purposes and sound policy, produced consequences which 
the great President hardly anticipated, and even before the date 
prescribed by law for the expiration of the charter of the great 
bank, there had already begun an inflation of paper money, un- 
der the inspiration of which the country was then rushing to 
financial disaster and bankruptcy. The crushing of the one 
" monster" was followed by the birth of hundreds. We have al- 
ready told the history, as briefly as possible, of the several 
schemes of banking projected in the State of Illinois, and of their 
lamentable and costly termination. 

The antagonism of the national government towards the Xa- 



Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 705 

tional Bank, particularly when shown by the withdrawal of the 
public deposits from that institution, necessitated the adoption 
of some other policy. The sub-treasury system had not then 
been devised; the use of banks was a natural continuation of the 
old system, modified by the extinction of the great national " reg- 
ulator." The government deposits were then transferred to State 
banks, those selected being popularly called the "pet banks." So 
soon as the fate of the United States Bank had been definitely 
determined, there was a strong demand for State banks, and these 
issuing money in great abundance,- led to that inflation out of 
which grew an era of wide-spread speculation, and a rivalry be- 
tween sections and States, for improvements in the way of rail- 
roads and canals. 

It was under the fever of this great internal improvement de- 
mand, that the State of Illinois, at the sessions of 1835 and 1836, 
overlooked or put out of sight the history of the previous costly 
experiments of banking, and again chartered banks on a more 
magnificent scale, to the extent and at the cost already stated. It 
cannot be denied that this revival of charters for banks in which 
the State was to be a partner, was due to the popular demand for 
works of public improvement. The means for this purpose could 
only be obtained through the agency of banks; the banks were 
State agents, and were to be sustained by the credit and resources 
of the State, and were expected to furnish all the bank paper 
needed to float the credit of the State. The laws were ample for 
this purpose, so far as this could be accomplished by statute, but 
no legislation has yet been framed which can compel public con- 
fidence nor sustain credit where there are no substantial and 
available means. So, the legislature having provided the bank 
in 1835, and that bank having during that time of universal spec- 
ulation been eminently successful, the legislature of 1836 en- 
larged the banking system, that the State might engage in the 
great system of railway and other improvements, which was to 
construct a highway to market from every quarter-section farm 
in the State. 

At the election in 1834, Joseph Duncan was elected governor 
of Illinois. He was then, and had been, a successful member of 
Congress. He was personally opposed to the anti-bank policy of 
President Jackson, but this was not generally known until after the 
election. He was inaugurated in December of that year, and in 
his address boldly denounced the policy of the President. He 
was elected as a Democrat, and sought to capture the popular 
sentiment by strongly recommending the construction of State 
roads, cordially approving the project of the Illinois and Michi 
gan Canal, and urging liberal charters for railways. He of course 
45 



706 Financi.il History of Illinois and Chicago. 

proposed banks, and the legislation of 1834-5 was substantially 
that suggested by him. So successful were the banks then cre- 
ated, that a special session of the legislature was held in the win- 
ter of 1835-6, and the banks were enlarged. Speculation had 
become wild in the extreme. 

Chicago was then in her infancy, but real estate in that city 
reached prices which it never permanently commanded for forty 
years later. The immigration to the State was, in those days great. 
hi 1836, public lands to the value of $5,000,000 were entered 
in Illinois. Speculation was however rife in all the infant cities 
and towns. Lots in Chicago and in the hundreds of other Illi- 
nois cities and towns, were purchased, unsight and unseen, by spec- 
ulators at the East, just as mining property in the mountains of Col- 
orado and Wyoming is now bought. Governor Ford, in his history 
mentions the statement that the staple articles of Illinois export 
were town plats, and that there was danger of crowding the State 
with towns to the exclusion of land for agriculture. Under the 
excitement, of this craze a new legislature was elected in August, 
1836. The subject of internal improvements was the all absorb- 
ing issue; it was considered that all that was necessary to build 
up these towns, and populate the State was the construction of 
railways. Simultaneously with the meeting of the legislature, 
a monster convention was held at the seat of government, to 
promote this grand scheme. The scheme itself was, to a great 
•extent indefinite, but its advocates insisted that it should be 
•comprehensive enough to meet the wants of every locality. The 
legislature was overwhelmed by an outside pressure, which it was 
unable, even if disposed, to resist. 

On the 27th of February, 1837, the legislature passed the "act 
to establish and maintain a general system of internal improve- 
ments." This act authorized and directed the expenditure of 
various sums for the purposes and objects stated. We include in 
this list the additions made thereto by subsequent legislation : 

Improvement of Great Wabash River $100,000 

Illinois River 100,000 

Rock River 100,000 

KaskasHa River 50,000 

Little Wabash River 50,000 

Great Western Mail Route from St. Louis to Vincennes 250,000 

Central Railroad, from Cairo to the Illinois and Michigan Canal. . . ) 

{Southern Railroad, from Alton to Mt. Carmel > 1,600,000 

Railroad from Alton to Shawneetown ) 

Northern Cross Railroad, from Quincy to Indiana State Line 1,800.000 

Branch of Central Hillsboro to Terre Haute 650,000 

Railroad, from Peoria via Mt. Carmel and Carthage to Warsaw 700,000 

Railroad, from Alton to Hillsboro to the Central Railroad 600,000 



Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 707 

Railroad, from Belleville via Lebanon to intersect Southern Cross 

< Railroad 150,000 

Railroad, from Bloomington, to Mackinaw, in Tazewell County, thence 

to Pekin 350,000 

Also, an appropriation of $250,000 out of the first proceeds of 
the internal improvement bonds, to be distributed per capita of 
the population, to those counties in which no railroad was 
directed to be constructed, and in which no navigable stream 
was to be improved. This money was to be expended in making 
roads and bridges. 

Two "Boards" were of course organized to operate the ma- 
chinery of this system. One was a Board of " Fund Commission- 
ers," to manage the financial part; the other was a Board of " Com- 
missioners of Public Works." This latter Board had juris- 
diction over all the public works, except the canal. The law re- 
quired that portion of the Northern Cross Railroad between 
Springfield and Jacksonville to be built immediately. But all 
the other roads were required to be begun at each end, and, at 
important towns on the line, the work to progress in both direc- 
tions from every point at which it was begun. The jealousy 
which inspired such legislation as that, was characteristic of that 
time. HSTo locality was willing that another should have even a 
day in advance in the march to unlimited prosperity. 

The construction of the canal had, up to this time, been car- 
ried on by the proceeds of the sale of lands and of lots in Chicago 
and other towns along the line of the canal. In order to obtain 
votes for the internal improvement system, the legislature in- 
cluded in this act of 1837, an authority to make a loan for the 
sum of $500,000 for the canal, and thereafter that work became 
part of the system. 

The act of ' 1837 authorized an expenditure of $10,230,000. At 
the legislature of 1839, additional expenditures were authorized 
directly, to the amount of $1,000,000, including two new short 
railways; and it also included indirectly and prospectively, a new 
railway from Alton to Carlinville, and additional river improve- 
ments. Th3 crowning act was an authority to negotiate a loan 
of $4,000,000, to continue the work on the canal. 

Connected with the legislation on this subject was that of the 
removal of the seat of the State government. "When it was re- 
moved from Kaskaskia, the location at Yandalia was limited to 
twenty years. Alton had the promise for the future; but Alton 
had become, in its own expectation, the future commercial metrop- 
olis of the Mississippi Yalley, and in consideration of being 
made the terminus of three railways, renounced the claim to be 
the State Capital. Springfield was the aspirant. Sangamon 
County was a large one, and had nine members of the general 



708 Financial History, of Illinois and Chicago. 

assembly, two senators, and seven representatives. These nine 
votes were of consequence in the passage or defeat of the Inter- 
nal Improvement measure. They were primarily for the removal 
of the seat of government to Springfield, and when the building 
of a State Capitol at Springfield was included in the scheme, the 
nine votes of Sangamon voted for the enormous job. Governor 
Ford, in his history, thus sums up this part of the story: 

"Amongst them were some dexterous jugglers and managers 
in politics, whose whole object was to obtain the seat of govern- 
ment for Springfield. This delegation, from the beginning of 
the session, threw itself as a unit in support of, or opposition to, 
every local measure of interest, but never without a bargain for 
votes in return on the seat of government question. Most of the 
other counties were small, having but one representative, and 
many of them with but one for the whole district; and this gave 
Sangamon County a decided preponderance in the log-rolling 
system of those days. It is worthy of examination whether any 
just and equal legislation can ever be sustained, where some of the 
counties are great and powerful and others feeble. But by such 
means ' the long nine ' rolled along like a snow ball, gathering ac- 
cessions of strength at every turn, until they swelled up a consid- 
erable party for Springfield, which party they managed to make 
almost as a unit in favor of the internal improvement system, in 
return for which the active supporters w T ere to vote for Spring- 
field to be the seat of government. Thus it was made to cost the 
State about $6,000,000 to remove the system of that seat of 
government from Yandalia to Springfield, half of which sum 
would have purchased all the real estate in that town at three 
prices; and thus, by log-rolling on the canal measure, by multi- 
plying railroads, by terminating three railroads at Alton, that 
Alton might become a great city in opposition to St. Louis, by 
distributing money to some of the counties to be wasted by the 
county commissioners, and by giving the seat of government to 
Springfield, was the whole State bought up and bribed, to ap- 
prove the most senseless and disastrous policy which ever crip- 
ples the energies of a growing country." 

We forbear even a sketch of the financial transactions. The 
banks negotiated some of the bonds, and all the banks of the 
country having suspended in 1837, money, such as it was, was 
easy. The canal loan was sent to Europe, and the negotiations 
there and at h-ome were of the most remarkable character. The 
bonds were forever depreciating, and the proceeds of the loans 
disclosed cruel losses and much irregularity. At last Governor 
Carlin called a special session of the legislature, to meet Decem- 
ber 9, 1839. He who, a year before remonstrated against any 



Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 709 

abandonment of the scheme, now confessed its failure. He 
reached the conclusion that if the State went on with the work 
already begun, it would tind itself in debt at least §21,000,000; 
it already owed about $14,000,000; its annual revenue was not 
over $200,000; its annual charge for interest was $800,000; and 
the population of the State was not exceeding half a million. Not 
a mile of railroad had been completed, and the Governor stated 
the assets of the State to be 430,000 acres of land, and 3,491 lots 
in the towns along the canal, and some railroad iron in New 
York subject to the payment of duties! This was the end of the 
system of nearly 1400 miles of railway, and a canal 100 miles 
long, and vast river improvements. 

In 1838 some eight miles of track from Meredosia. were laid; 
subsequently, at a cost of $1,000,000, this track was extended to 
Springfield, and was sold by the State for $100,000, payable in 
State indebtedness. That was the total outcome of the whole 
mammoth scheme. At that session of the legislature, in the 
month of Feb., 1840, the legislature abolished its various Boards, 
prohibited any further sale of bonds, or expenditures, discharged 
its force of engineers and other officers, and provided for wind- 
ing up the whole business. The work on the canal was not then 
arrested — its life was protracted a little longer. This was the sit- 
uation of aifairs when the legislature adjourned in the spring of 
1840. The payment of interest for 1841 on the canaljloan was 
accomplished, but it was not possible to meet that on the other 
parts of the debt. The legislature that met in December, 1840, 
authorized the hypothecation of a sufficient number of the inter- 
nal improvement bonds to pay the interest which would " legal- 
ly" fall due in 1841. The reason for the use of this term " le- 
gally" was to meet the objection already raised that some of the 
bonds of the State had been negotiated [outside of the require- 
ments of the law, and were therefore no longer a legal charge 
upon the State. A law was also passed authorizing the State to 
sell State interest bonds — to be sold in the market for what could 
be got for them. By these expedients the State was able to pay 
the January and July interest of 1841; that was the last pay- 
ment that was made — no further efforts seem to have been made 
to that end. In February, 1842, as has already been stated, the 
State banks went down to rise no more, and were put into liqui- 
dation. The State bonds were quoted as low as fourteen cents. 
Davison and Stuve in their history say, page 452: 

"The condition of this fair State, with her calamities thus aug- 
mented, was truly distressing. Abroad, her name was freely as- 
sociated with dishonor; emigrants, dreading high taxation, gave 
it a wide berth, unless it was those, who having no character of 



710 Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 

their own, cared little for that of the State of their adoption ; while 
the people here with rare exceptions, were anxious to sell out and 
flee a country which presented no alternative but dishonor or exor- 
bitant taxation. The chances to sell were, however, in adverse 
ratio to the desire, and while impending financial ruin, disgrace, 
and the fear of taxation kept the State from gaining population as 
rapidly as had been her wont; the inpracticability of effecting 
sales saved her against loss. En the meantime, an utter dearth 
and stagnation in all kinds of business prevailed." 

Governor Ford thus describes the condition of affairs at this 
time in Illinois: 

" jSTo further attempt was made after July, 1841, to pay interest on the public 
debt. For want of full knowledge of her condition abroad, and of the condi- 
tion of other new states, in a short time Illinois, and some others in the West, 
became a stench in the nostrils of the civilized world. The people at home be- 
gan to wake_ up in terror; the people abroad, who wished to settle in a new 
country, avoided Illinois as they would pestilence and famine; and there was 
great danger that the future immigrants would be men who, having no regard 
for their own characters, would also have none for that of the State where they 
might live. The terrors of high taxation were before all eyes, both at home and 
abroad. Every one at home wanted to sell his property and move away, and but 
few, either at home or abroad, wanted to purchase. The impossibility of selling 
kept us from losing population, and the fear of disgrace, or high taxes, pre- 
vented us from gaming materially." 

In 1824 the affairs of the infant State of Illinois were brought 
to a crisis of the most terrible character. It was then proposed 
to make African Slavery an institution of the State. At that 
moment, when the dark shadow of the national curse thus threat- 
ened this broad State, there was, seemingly by the hand of a spe- 
cial Providence, a man raised up to meet the calamity at the 
threshold, and to resist it so bravely and so successfully, that it 
was not only kept beyond the limits of the State, but its intro- 
duction here was forever thereafter prohibited. That man was 
Edward Coles, the second Governor of Illinois. His name will 
live in honor while that of Illinois is remembered, and so long 
as human liberty has an advocate on earth. 

In 18-42 Illinois was in the dust. Her treasury was empty — 
her credit destroyed. Her name was a world-wide reproach. She 
was bankrupt — hopelessly. She knew not what to do. She was 
overwhelmed in debt, and had no property. Her people were in 
debt far beyond their means of payment. Her statesmen were 
weak and cowardly. They had involved the State in all her 
trouble, and had not the courage to take the consequences. It 
only needed a demagogue bold enough to avow the purpose, and 
dishonor and shame would have completed the dire misfortune. 
Again the hand of Providence seemed to have been especially 
interposed to save the State. Another candidate having been 



Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 711 

nominated, death intervened and removed him before the election, 
and the man needed by the State to meet the pending calamity 
was selected unexpectedly, and was made Governor in December, 
1842. That man was Thomas Ford — a name which, because of 
his own great merits of integrity and ability, is forever entitled 
to distinction and credit, but which is entitled to grateful remem- 
brance because of his heroic and inflexible purity and the firmness, 
by which he rescued Illinois from the peril into which she had 
fallen, and in which she was overwhelmed in despair. Ko braver, 
truer, nobler man ever served the State; no brighter record tells 
the public deeds of even the greatest of her sons. Governor 
Ford, in his own history of the State, thus describes the condition 
of affairs when he entered the office of Governor: 

" There was no party in the legislature of 1842-3 in favor of an immediate in- 
crease of taxation to pay interest on the public debt. Many there were who 
wanted to do nothing for five or ten years ; and to trust to luck and accident for 
the means of improvement. There were a very few who were in favor of repu- 
diating the whole debt of the State, who denied the power of the legislature to 
bind the people by contracting it, and who were in favor of giving up to the 
public creditor all the property purchased with the borrowed money, and all the 
public works constructed by it, as all that ever could or ought to be done in the 
way of payment. But the great majority of the legislature held different opin- 
ions. Resolutions were passed which clearly stated the inability of the State to 
meet its engagements, and fully recognized our moral and legal obligations to 
provide for ultimate payment. The pay immediately was out of the question. 
Heavy taxation then would have depopulated the country, and the debt would 
never be paid." 

He further says: 

"The people of Bond County, as soon as the internal improvement system 
passed, had declared in a public meeting that the system must lead to taxation 
and utter ruin; that the people were not bound to pay any of the debt contracted 
for it; and that Bond County would never assist in paying a cent of it. Accord- 
ingly, they refused to pay taxes for several years. When the system went clown 
and left the State in the ruinous condition predicted by the Bond County meeting, 
many people remembered that there might be a question raised as to the obliga- 
tion of payment. Public men everywhere, of all parties, stood in awe of this 
question ; there was a kind of general silence as to what would be popular or 
unpopular. The two great political parties were watching each other Math eagle 
eyes, to see that no one should get the advantage of the other. The whigs, 
driven to desperation by repeated ill-success in elections, were many of them in 
favor of repudiation, as a means of bettering their party. Very many democrats 
were in favor of the same course, for fear of losing the power the democratic party 
already possessed. It was thought to be a very dangerous subject to meddle 
with. At a democratic convention which nominated Mr. Snyder for governor, a 
resolution against repudiation offered by Mr. Arnold, of Chicago, was laid on the 
table by an overwhelming vote of the convention, so as not to commit the party 
one way or the other. It was evident that this was to be a troublesome question, 
and a great many of the politicians on both sides were as ready to take one side 
of it as the other, and their choice depended upon which might finally appear t« 
be the most powerful. The whigs were afraid if they advocated the debt-paying 
policy, the democrats would take the other side and leave the whigs no chance 
of ever coming into a majority; and the democrats were afraid if they advocated 



'712 Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 

a correct policy, the other side might be more popular, and might be taken by 
the whigs. I speak only of the leaders of parties; amongst whom on all sides 
there was* a strong suspicion that repudiation might be more popular that tax- 
ation." 

And lie thus states his conviction of what then might have 
been done: 

"It is my solemn belief that when I came into office, I had the power to 
make Illinois a repudiating State. It is true, I was not the leader of any party; 
but my position as governor would have given me leadership enough to have car- 
ried the democratic party, except in a few counties in the north, in favor of repu- 
diation. If I had merely stood still and done nothing, the result would have 
been the same. In that case, a majority of both parties would have led to either 
active or passive repudiation. The politicians on neither side, without a bold 
lead to the contrary, by some high in office, would never have dared to risk their 
popularity by being the first to advocate an increase of taxes to be paid by a tax- 
hating people." • 

The governor was a practical man, and an honest man, and 
one more intent upon accomplishing the public interests than 
upon glorifying himself. We have already stated that he 
obtained the legislation by which he was able to close out the 
indebtedness of the State to the banks. The legislature was 
induced by him to settle with the banks, whereby those institu- 
tions surrendered state bonds held by them as collateral for the 
capital stock of the banks, subscribed for by the State. Subse- 
quently, and after long and laborious negotiation, the foreign 
holders of the canal debt were induced to make a further loan 
of $1,600,000 to complete the canal, the property to be conveyed to 
trustees, and held by them until the canal debt and interest was 
paid. Though the canal debt was not paid, nor the State dis- 
v-liarged from it, that debt was placed in a condition that it 
would be eventually paid out of the earnings of the work itself. 
By the bank settlements, the State was released of $3,000,000 of 
debt, and from the immediate pressure of the canal debt, amount- 
ing with deferred interest, to more than $4,000,000. The governor 
had fought and beaten down the spirit of repudiation. During 
these very days of trial and struggle, the State was visited with a 
succession of storms and floods, carrying off the crops, and reduc- 
ing the people in several sections to actual want. 

But this was only temporarily bridging over an extremity. 
Some-thing more, and of a permanent character, was required. 
A delay in the canal negotiation, postponed for a season, other 
measures were proposed by this fearless and faithful public officer. 
He proposed, but it was not until a later date, that he obtained the 
legislation imposing a direct tax of one and one-half mills, to 
pay interest on the debt of the State. This, be it remembered, 
was enacted at a time when, for two successive seasons, there had 



Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 713 

been a failure of crops, a devastation by floods, and an unprece- 
dented visitation of malarial fevers and other diseases. Under 
the firm hand of the inflexible governor, the State levied this 
direct tax to pay interest on the debt — a debt which had left 
nothing substantial to represent it. It was some time before the 
machinery for reconstructing the credit of the State could be put 
in motion. The proceeds of this 1J- mill tax, levied by the act 
of 1845, were to be applied to the payment of interest on all the 
bonds of the State, including the canal bonds; as the interest on 
the latter consumed nearly one-half the proceeds of the tax, there 
was, even after the tax began to be collected, a large and annual 
deficiency of interest which continued to be added to the long 
account of unpaid interest. At the time of the suspension of 
interest in 1841, the annual charge for interest was $830,000. 
This was reduced somewhat by the settlement with the banks, 
but it was still, for that day, an immense charge. 

The great victory, however, was won when the State resolved 
to pay the debt and interest, and levied the first tax therefor. 
After that it was a mere question of time. The moral victory 
was already accomplished. The people, under the guidance of 
honest Thomas Ford, their governor, had triumphed over every 
temptation to be false to the State, to their honor and to their 
creditors. Governor Ford thus recapitulates the condition of 
affairs as he found them on entering office in December, 1842, 
and when he left office in 1846: 

" In the conclusion of this history, the author must be permitted to indulge in 
a slight retrospection of the past. In 1842, when he came into office, the State 
was in debt about $14,000,000 for moneys wasted upon internal improvements, 
and in banking; the domestic treasury of the State was in arrear 8313.000 for 
the ordinary expenses of government; auditors' warrants were freely selling at 
a discount of fifty per cent.; the people were unable to pay even moderate taxes 
to replenish the treasury, in which not one cent was contained, even to pay post- 
age on letters to and from the public offices; the great canal, after spending five 
millions of dollars on it, was about to be abandoned; the banks, upon which the 
people had relied for a currency, had become insolvent, then paper had fallen so 
low as to cease to circulate as money, and as yet no other money had taken its 
place, leaving the people wholly destitute of a circulating medium, and univer- 
sally in debt: hnmigration to the State had almost ceased; real estate was wholly 
unsaleable; the people abroad, terrified by the prospect of high taxation, refused 
to come among us for settlement, and our own people at home were no less 
alarmed and terrified at the magnitude of our debt, then apparently so much ex- 
ceeding any known resources of the country. Many were driven to absolute 
despair of ever paying a cent of it: and it would have required but little coun- 
tenance and encouragement in the then disheartened and wavering condition of 
the public mind to have plunged the State into the one terrible infamy of open 
repudiation. This is by no menus an exaggerated picture of our affairs in 1842. 

"In December, 1846" when the author went out of office, the domestic debt of 
the treasury, instead of being $313,000, was only 831,000, with $9,000 in the 
treasury; auditors' warrants were at par-, or very nearly so; the banks had been 
put into liquidation in a manner just to all parties, and so as to maintain the 



714 Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 

character of the State for moderation and integrity; violent counsels were reject- 
ed; the notes of the banks had entirely disappeared, and had been replaced hi 
circulation by a reasonable abundance of gold and silver coin, and the notes of 
solvent banks of other states; the people had very generally paid their private 
debts; a very considerable portion of the State debt had been paid also; about 
three millions of dollars had been paid by a sale of the public property, and by 
putting- the banks into liquidation; and a sum of five millions more had been 
provided for, to be paid after the completion of the canal; being a reduction of 
eight millions of the State debt which had been paid, redeemed, or provided for, 
whilst the author was in office. 

''The State itself, although broken, and at one time discredited, and a by- 
word throughout the civilized world, had, to the astonishment of every one, been 
able to borrow on the credit of its property, the further sum of $1,600,000 to 
finish the canal; and that great work is now (1847) hi a fair way of completion. 
The people abroad have once more begun to seek this goodly land for their 
future homes. From 1843 until 1846, our population rapidly increased, and is 
now (1847) increasing faster than ever it did before. Our own people have be- 
come contented and happy, and the former discredit resting upon them abroad 
for supposed willful delinquency in paying the State debt, no longer exists." 

In 1846 the people, by popular vote, elected a State Convention 
to remodel the Constitution. This body met in 1847. The 
constitution then formed was ratified by the people in March, 
1848. Our interest in this Constitution is merely to show that 
a proposition to place in the constitution an irrepealable section 
imposing a tax to pay the State debt, was voted down. Dema- 
gogues and cowards affected to doubt the people's honesty. That 
section was, however, submitted as an article of the constitution, 
to be voted upon separately by the people, so that its defeat 
would not carry .with it the defeat of the whole constitution. 
The vote on this section, imposing a permanent tax of two mills 
on the dollar, on all the taxable property of the State, to be 
applied to the payment of the principal of the State debt other 
than the canal debt, was ratified by the people, they voting 
directly upon the merits of the proposition. 
The State had now made provision as follows: 

1. An annual tax to pay the interest on all the public debt. 

2. An annual tax to pay the principal of the State debt other 
than the canal debt. 

3. A setting apart of the earnings of the canal to pay that 
debt. 

Then, in 1850, was the contract with the Illinois Central Rail- 
road, by which, in lieu of other taxes, the Illinois Central Railroad 
Company agreed to pay into the State treasury a sum equal to 
seven per cent, of its gross earnings. The State had thus made 
ample provision for the payment of its debts. In 1847 the State 
provided for funding the principal of all its debts, except the ca- 
nal debt, and in 1857 provided for funding all the arrearages of 
interest on all its debts, issuing bonds therefor, thus paying in- 
terest on the interest which had fallen in arrear during the years 
of helplessness. 



Financial History of Illinois and Chicago. 715 

It is not the purpose of this paper to relate the detailed histo- 
ry of the debt. 

Notwithstanding the payments and reductions made in the 
twelve years, from 1841 to 1853, such had been the accumulations 
of unpaid interest, that on the first of January, 1853, the princi- 
pal and overdue interest still unpaid amounted to $17,398,985. 
Under the act of 1857, the arrearages of interest accrued and 
then unpaid were funded to the amount of $2,973,029. 

From the date of the act of 1845, imposing a tax to pay inter- 
est on the debt, down to Nov. 30, 1860, the direct taxes collected 
from the people of Illinois and paid on account of principal and 
interest of their public debt, was as follows: 

RECEIVED AND DISBURSED, 



V/i MILL INTEREST TAX. 

To November 30, 1846.... % 62,024 

1846 to 1848 234.944 

1848 to 1850 296.827 

1850 to 1852 366,394 

1852 to 1854 528,258 

18-54 to 1856 966,420 

1856 to 1858 1,047,884 

1858 to 1860 949,082 



Total $4,451,333 



2 MILL TAX, PRINCIPAL. 

To November 30, 1850 .... $165,789 

1850 to 1852 492,167 

1852 to 1854 771,221 

1854 to 1856 1,113,413 

1856 to 1858 1,387,554 

1858 to 1860 1,192,010 



Total $5,052,153 



Grand Total $9,503,486 



With these and other payments, the State debt, -November 30, 
1860, still remaining unpaid, was $10,346,017. 

The Legislature of Illinois authorized the city of Chicago to 
make certain expenditures for the purpose of deepening and oth- 
erwise improving the Illinois & Michigan Canal. This act gave 
the city a lien on the canal for the amount not exceeding $2,800,000 
to be refunded at the pleasure of the State, from the earnings of the 
canal. The great fire in Chicago took place in October, 1871, and 
the Legislature, at a special session, assumed this expenditure, 
and bonds to that amount were issued to the city in satisfaction of 
the lien. In this way $2,800,000 more was added to the cost 
of the canal, and the bonds issued for that purpose were added 
to the debt of the State then unpaid. 

The debt of Illinois has been comparatively a light burden 
since 1860. Up to that time the tax had been a grievous one. 
A half million of people in 1845 bravely began to tax themselves 
to pay interest on a debt, which then, with accumulated interest, 
was nearly $18,000,000. Three years later they adopted a perma- 
nent tax, to pay the principal of that debt. The great recovery, 
which followed the adoption of these measures, soon enabled the 
State not only to meet its current liabilities for interest, but also 



716 Grade of Chicago Streets. 

I 

to begin the payment of the principal and, funding the long over 
due interest, to begin the reduction. In addition to this, the 
State in 1856 began to receive an increasing income from the 
Illinois Central Kailroad Company. In 1870 the two mill tax 
was discontinued, being no longer needed ; the interest fund tax was 
reduced to a nominal sum. The whole tax for ten years on ac- 
count of the public debt has been nominal, or wholly omitted, 
and the State treasury has during that time been always in ad- 
vance of the maturity of the outstanding bonds, which the credit- 
ors preferred to hold, than to surrender. 

And now, on the first day of January 1881, the last outstand- 
ing piece of scrip, warrant, voucher, coupon and bond of the State 
of Illinois ,has become due, and has been paid, and the heroic 
work begun in January, 1842, has been completed, and Illinois 
has been delivered from her bonds, has been emancipated from 
the chains in which Governor Ford found her, and is fkee from 
debt. 



GRADE OF CHICAGO STREETS. 

The first houses erected in Chicago were built on spiles set into 
the ground, sufficiently elevated to fix the lower floor above the 
possibility of being flooded by excessive rains. Of course cellars 
or basement kitchens were not to be thought of. Later, when a 
better class of buildings were erected as business blocks, private 
grading up the streets in front of them began to be practiced, 
some of which grading may have been done by a street tax au- 
thorized by the corporation, but the first street grade was not es- 
tablished till 1855, as appears from the following letter from Mr. 
Moody, Ass't City Clerk. 

R. Blanchard, 

Wheaton, 111., 
Dear Sir : I have looked up the question of grades of the city, as you requested. 
I find the first ordinance was passed in March, 1855. This established the grade 
of Lake street at about 8.62. The present grade of the street is 14 feet. My 
figures refer to the plane of low water of the Chicago river in 1847 as fixed by 
the canal commissioners, and mean 8.62 feet and 14 feet above that level. I find 
several other streets where the change is about the same. On the West Side 
the change is not so great, being originally estab ished at a higher point. I 
estimate the change at about three feet. 

Yours truly, 
John A. Moody. 

The grade of the whole city is now sufficiently above high water 
to admit of convenient basements, and is doubtless established 
on a permanent basis, never again to be changed. 



The Catholic Church in Chicago. TIT 



THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO, 

BY WILLIAM J. ONAIIAN. 

The history of the Catholic Church, in Chicago, dates from 
1674. 

The first chapter begins With Father Marquette. 

The narrative of Father Marquette's memorable explorations 
formed the necessary introduction to this history of the Discov- 
ery and Conquests of the Northwest. 

There is a certain unique fitness in devoting its closing part, 
to an account of the growth and present position of that Church, 
whose sacred rites he celebrated on the banks of the Chicago 
River, upwards of 200 years ago. The memory of Father 
Marquette, is held in reverence and admiration by every Ameri- 
can, no matter before what altar he worships, or what the form 
and tenets of his religious creed. He is honored as a courageous 
and heroic explorer, and a zealous and Apostolic Christian Mis- 
sionary, • 

Tie is held in veneration for the grace and beauty which 
shone in his character, and the gentle and benignant qualities 
that were illustrated in his labors. 

His lonely and touching death on the opposite shore of Lake 
Michigan fitly crowned a life consecrated to a noble mission. 

That mission was the salvation of souls. He was a priest of 
the Catholic Church, and a missionary of the Society of Jesus. 

It was on the occasion of Father Marquette's second trip to the 
Illinois country that he made a brief sojourn at the site of the 
future city of Chicago, and here, Nov. 1, 1674, on the banks of 
the Chicago river, having erected a temporary hut which served 
as a chapel, he solemnized the mysteries]of his faith. His congrega- 
tion comprised the two voyageurs, his companions, and the few 
Indians who had gathered in the vicinity. 

Thus, upwards of 200 years ago, the Catholic Church conse- 
crated the site of the future city by the solemn rites and cere- 
monies of Christian worship. 

It is not deemed necessary to enter into the history of. the 
subsequent missionary labors of the pioneer apostles of that 
church, who devoted their labors and consecrated their lives in 
the effort to win to Christianity the Indian tribes of the prairies. 
Dr. John Gilmary Shea, and Professor Parkman have made 
the narrative familiar. 



718 The Catholic Church in Chicago. 

With the close of the French dominion in the" Northwest, 
effected by the Treaty of Utrecht the presence and labors of the 
black-gown gradually disappeared from the scene; though one 
or more of the zealous missionaries would, from time to time, re- 
appear in thejthen forbidden territory, to recall and renew amongst 
the Indian tribes the teachings of the pioneer fathers. Some 
semblance of Catholic faith and teaching was thus kept alive and 
preserved by the Indians of Illinois up to the beginning of the 
present century. 

Prior to 1843, Chicago and the entire State of Illinois was 
embraced within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the See of Yin- 
cennes, Indiana. Up to the year 1835, the religious wants of the 
Catholic settlers of Chicago and vicinity were supplied by the 
occasional visits and ministrations of a priest from Detroit, or 
Yincennes. 

In that year, the Kev. Bernard SchaefTer, was assigned to the 
mission of Chicago, as its first settled pastor. His earliest care 
naturally was the erection of a place of worship which he ac- 
complished, though not without labor and difficulty, in conse- 
quence of the poverty of his flock. 

Before Father SchaefTer's death, which occurred in 1837, he 
had been reinforced in the person of Rev. Father St. Cyr, who 
still survives, and is now in retirement at Carondelet, near St. 
Louis, venerated and honored for his career of missionary labors. 
h The earliest mention of Chicago in the official Catholic 
almanacs, occurs in that published for the year 1839, which gives 
this brief notice : 

" Bev. James O'Meara, Chicago, visits occasionally M t. Juliet, 
Calumet, Smallfork, Illinois Canal, etc." During the adminis- 
tration of Father O'Meara, visits to Chicago were made by 
Bishops Loras, of Dubuque, and Bishop Purcell, present Arch- 
bishop of Cincinnati. These prelates came to reconcile difficul- 
ties that had arisen between Father O'Meara and his people. 

The original Church built by Father SchaefTer had meantime 
been removed from the corner of State and Lake to the 
corner of Madison St. and Michigan Avenue, wdiere a 
lot had been secured from the IT. S. the same, on which 
was erected at a later period the Episcopal residence, 
known before the fire as the ''Bishop's Palace." Following the 
history of this primitive Church edifice, we find it moved, some 
years afterwards, to the w T ell known site of St. Mary's Church, 
the southwest corner of Wabash Avenue and Madison street, 
md from there it was again displaced to give way to the well 
Cathedral — dear Old St. Mary's. The old build- 
moved to the rear, where it served as a school 



The Catholic Church in Chicago. 710 

house and place of meeting for the societies of the Church. 

The Rev. Father Badin — " Old Father Badin", as he was 
familiarly designated in the West, was an occasional visitor to 
the Catholics of Chicago, in the early days, and many interest- 
ing reminiscences and anecdotes connected with his labors, are 
told by early surviving Catholic settlers. 

He founded a local temperance society, which embraced nearly 
all the Catholic male adults in Chicago at that time. From 
1840 to 1842, Rev. Father St. Palais, afterwards Bishop of 
Yincennes, was pastor of the Chicago Mission, and he had for 
his assistant Rev. Francis J. Fisher. 

The Catholic population of the diocese, which then included 
Indiana, Michigan and Illinois was estimated in the official Al- 
manac for 1842, at 25,000. 

The formal official history of the Catholic Church in Chicago 
dates from the appointment of its first Bishop — Right Rev. 
William Quarter. 

The Catholic " See of Chicago," was established in 1844, 
Bishop Quarter was consecrated in New York, March 10, 1844, 
and took formal possession of the newly-created See Sunday 
May 5, following; thee eremony of installation, being held in the 
old Church previously referred to. 

Bishop Quarter was accompanied to Chicago by his brother — 
Rev. Walter J. Quarter. 

Bishop Quarter was obliged to begin his Episcopal work at 
the foundation. He built and completed St. Mary's Cathedral 
which was solemnly consecrated Sunday, Oct. 5, 1845. He found- 
ed the College later known as the " University of St. Mary's of 
the Lake" and through his foresight and efforts, a charter for the 
institution was subsequently obtained from the legislature of 
the State. The College was first opened and formally dedicated, 
4th, July, 1S46. Enrolled among its earliest students were 
many names that have since become honored in the ranks of the 
Priesthood, and others distinguished in public life. Rev. Dr. 
Jno McMullen, who has just laid down his trust as administrator 
of the diocese, and the gallant and lamented General James A. 
Mulligan, occur in the first register, with others that might be 
named. To Bishop Quarter, is likewise due the credit of having 
secured the passage of the law incorporating the Catholic Bishop 
of Chicago as a "Corporation Sole, with power to hold real and 
other property in trust for religious purposes." Bishop Quar- 
ter's Episcopal rule was not ol long duration. Incessant and 
laborious toils undermined his health, and on Passion Sunday, 
1S4S, his flock in St. Mary's received for the last time his Episco- 
pal blessing. On the 10th, of April ensuing, he expired in the 



720 The Catholic Church in Chicago, 

arms of his beloved and always faithful brother. Loved and 
lamented by all, his remains were solemnly deposited in his 
Cathedral, according to his wish, and a votive tablet long re- 
mained in St. Mary's, recalling his memory and his memorable 
works. 

His brother, "Rev. Walter J. Quarter, acted as administrator 
until the appointment of Bishop Yan de Yelde, in 1848. 

The Right Rev. James Oliver Yan de Yelde, had previously 
filled an important position in the Jesuit University St. Louis, 
Mo., and was a member of that Society. He was formally installed 
as Bishop of the diocese in the Cathedral of St. Mary's, in 1849. 
The same year was commenced the Church of the Holy Name, 
under the direction of Rev. Father Kinsella, who was at the 
same time rector of the " College of St. Marys of the Lake." 

Associated with Father Kinsella were the well known Fathers 
Clowry and Breen. St. Patrick's Church, corner of Desplaines 
and Randolph, had been established; and about the same time, 
also, a Church for German Catholics was dedicated, which latter 
was located on Washington St. near 5th Avenue? 

The first of the religious orders to obtain a foundation in 
Chicago, was that of the Sisters of Mercy, the foundation of 
their convent on Wabash Ave. being laid in 1846, under the 
direction of the accomplished and lamented Mother Agatha, 
whose early death in 1852 was greatly mourned, not only by 
Catholics but by the entire community. 

Bishop Yan de Yelde's administration was troubled and cloud- 
ed by discussions and difficulties, which finally resulted in his 
resignation and transfer to another field of labor. His appoint- 
ment to the diocese of Natchez, dates from July, 1853. 

In that year the experiment of a Catholic weekly journal w T as 
attempted, under the management of JVIr. William Linton, then 
recently from St. Louis. 

Associated with Mr. Linton in the editoral chair was James 
A. Mulligan, a young law r yer of promise, and possessing first 
class talents as a writer. 

January 8, 1854, the "Chicago Catholic Institute" was found- 
ed, a literary association which embraced for many years the 
leading Catholic young men of Chicago, in its ranks and mem- 
bership. 

The course of lectures given by it in the fall of that year, pre- 
sented to the Chicago public, Dr. O. A. Brownson, Thos. 
D'Arcy McGee, James A. "McMaster, Donald McLeod, and others. 

On the removal of Bishop Yan de Yelde to Natchez, the Rev. 
James Dnggan of St. Louis, subsequently Bishop, was appoint- 
ed administrator of the diocese, which position he continued to 



The Catholic Church in Chicago. 721 

hold until the installation of the Right Rev. Anthony O'Regan, 
likewise of St. Louis, who was consecreted Bishop of Chicago 
July 25, 1854. 

His administration, like that of his Episcopal predecessor, was 
soon marred by unhappy differences with some of the leading 
priests of the city, finally resulting in the dismissal from the 
diocese of Messrs. Kinsella, Breen and Clowry. 

The bad spirit and resentments sown during the unfortunate 
feud (we do not assume to fix the responsibility), occasioned 
much bitterness of feeling, and, being unable or unwilling to 
bear the burden of discontent, Bishop O'Regan sought peace by 
following the example of his predecessor. He too resigned. 
Dr. O'Regan was transferred to a See i. p.f., and retired to 
Ireland, where he spent the rest of his days in the seclusion of a 
College with which he had been connected in earlier days. 

In 1859 the Right Rev. James Duggan, the same who had 
charge of the diocese five years previously, and who in the mean- 
time had been promoted to the Episcopal dignity as co-adjutor to> 
the Archbishop of St. Louis, was transferred to Chicago. 

The increase in the Catholic population up to this time had 
fully kept pace with the growth of the city. Churches had mul- 
tiplied on every side; various institutions of charity had been 
founded, and the establishment of Catholic schools became the 
rule in nearly all the parishes. 

The House of the Good Shepherd, otherwise known as the 
" Magdalen Asylum," was founded in 1857, and the same year 
the Jesuits opened a church "'out on the prairie." 

The prodigies and wonders accomplished by the Jesuits under 
the energetic leadership of Father Damen remains to-day the 
pride and marvel of the West Division. 

The Jesuit institutions in Chicago merit a separate chapter. 

A magnificent Church of imposing design and vast propor- 
tion; a grand College completed in all its appointments, and pos- 
sessing a museum perhaps, unequaied in the West, besides a fine 
library carefully selected, containing 12,000 volumes; numerous 
and capacious Schools, having an attendance of fully 5,000: an 
immense building lately erectad for the use of the Societies of 
the parish — all these testify to the zeal and energy of the great 
order. 

In addition to the church of the Holy Family, on West 12th 
St., the Jesuits also built two other Churches, one on 19th St., 
near Hals ted — the Church of the Sacred Heart — the other corn- 
er of 18th and Paulina Sts., St. Pius Church. 

The latter is now in charge of Rev. Hugh McGuire — the for- 
mer remains under the control of the Jesuits, and its pastor is 
46 



722 The Catholic Church in Chicago. 

the renowned Father Damen himself — the pioneer, projector and 
builder of nearly all the great works first noted. Many other of 
the religious orders had already obtained a foothold. The Bene- 
dictines and the Red emp tori sts were assigned to German con- 
gregations, and each built up fine and capacious churches in the 
Sorth division. The female religious orders had been equally 
active — notably the " Sacred Heart," which was fortunate in its 
first superior and founder in Chicago — Madame Gallwey, a 
woman of great mind and possessing prodigious energy of 
character. 

The progress of the Church in Chicago during Bishop Dug- 
gan's reign was certainly remarkable, and to the public eye all 
seemed fair and prosperous ; but there were causes at work which 
effected to bring his official administration to a painful and mel- 
ancholy termination. 

heedless now to recall the deplorable controversies and dissen- 
sions which sprung up in 1868-9. It is a painful chapter in the 
Catholic history of Chicago. 

The malady that afflicted Bishop Duggan became'so serious as 
to necessitate his removal, in 1869, to St. Louis, where he has re- 
mained ever since, under the kind and tender care of a commu- 
nity renowned for their experience and skill in the treatment of 
like cases. Though enjoying robust health, Bishop Duggan has 
never recovered, or shown signs of recovery, from the infirmity 
which had taken root and suddenly obscured an intellect once 
bright and promising. 

Up to the recent appointment of Archbishop Feehan, Bishop 
Duggan remained titular Bishop of Chicago. Rev. Thos. J. Halli- 
gan acted as administrator after the removal of Bishop Duggan 
to St. Louis, and continued in that capacity until the arrival of 
the Administrator Bishop, Right Rev. Thomas J. Foley. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF BISHOP FOLEY. 

The appointment of the Rev. Thomas Foley, of Baltimore, as 
Bishop of Pergamus, i. p. f., and Administrator of Chicago, 
was announced at the end of the year 1869, and his formal con- 
secration took place in Baltimore, February 27, 1870. He came 
without ceremony or ostentation to enter upon his grave and 
critical charge, and the felicitous opening words of his installa- 
tion address to the clergy and laity, delivered in the Cathedral of 
the Holy Name the Sunday following his arrival in the city, 
"Peace be to you! " was a happy omen to all the faithful. It was 
not only the key-note to — it was likewise the watchword of, his ad- 
ministration to the end. 



The Catholic Church in, Chicago. 723 

During its comparatively brief existence, the Episcopal See of 
Chicago had been the scene of many and serious troubles. 

There had been feuds and failures, contentions and recrimina- 
tions, suspensions and removals, to the grief and affliction of the 
Catholic body at large; but at no time was there suspicion of 
personal scandal; and never did there appear a germ of schism in 
any of the unfortunate ecclesiastical difficulties that had arisen 
between the Ordinary and his clerics. These troubles w^ere 
bruited abroad as indicating that Chicago was an ungovernable 
and an intractable diocese, though never was impression le^s 
well founded. 

Certainly there had been difficulties from time to time. Au- 
thority may have exercised its power in instances with doubtful 
wisdom; and obedience and docility too often, perhaps, were 
wanting on the part of those whose duty it should have been to 
set the example of submission. But all this, and much more, 
that might be alluded to, it is not wise to recall in specitic detail, 
still less to comment on and criticise. To ignore it altogether, 
however, would be to omit what has passed into the public histo- 
ry of the period. 

From the beginning to the lamented close of Bishop Foley's 
administration, no sign of faction, no token of feud, ever made 
an appearance, and he left the diocese at his decease in a condi- 
tion of concord and prosperity, which constitutes the best tribute 
and the highest testimony to his prudence as an administrator, 
to his zeal as a bishop, to his charity as a man. 

The overwhelming disaster of the great fire in October, 1871, 
razed to the ground many of the finest churches and leading 
Catholic institutions of learning and charity. Besides "dear old 
Saint Mary's," there was swept away the Cathedral of the Holy 
Name, the beautiful Benedictine Church of St. Joseph, the 
Church of the Immaculate Conception, St. Michael's (Eedemp- 
tionists), and St. Paul's. 

Of the charitable institutions, first in all minds was the Orphan 
Asylum, then situate adjacent to the Cathedral. The poor or- 
phans were all saved by the almost superhuman exertions of the 
good Sisters in charge, of the Order of St. Joseph. The convent 
and asylum of the Good Shepherd, the Alexian Brothers' hospi- 
tal, and the hospital of the Sisters of Charity, the Convent and 
Academy of the Sisters of Mercy, the Christian Brothers' Acad- 
emy, and the schools attached to all the churches named, except 
only the Cathedral, which, by some strange anomaly, was up to 
this without a parochial school ! All these, together with con- 
vents and academies of the German congregations, were utterly 
swept away in that memorable fire. 



724 The Catholic Church in Chicago. 

! Needless to refer to the wreck and ruin of private homes, and 
to the public and personal losses caused by the fire. 

Ten years have not yet passed since that eventful October 
night, and yet scarcely a vestige of that wreck now remains visi- 
ble, and, more surprising still, the fire itself is hardly a living 
memory. If referred to at all, it is as if it were an event in the 
far away past, like the great fire of London. 

So swiftly do we live in these days of electricity and tele- 
phones ! 

But the great destruction and loss was met by Bishop Foley 
with a promptness and decision which brought out the strength 
and beauty of his character in a stronger light. The orphans 
were homeless: he instantly provided for them. A large number 
were transferred to asylums in the cities of St. Louis, Cincinnati 
and Milwaukee. The Good Shepherd nuns, and the religious of 
the other houseless orders, and their different charges, were pro- 
vided with temporary asylums. 

The Bishop himself accepted the hospitality of the Jesuit 
Fathers, and made their college his home. His fine house, corner 
of Michigan avenue and Madison streets, with its valuable and 
unique library, rare paintings — accumulated in great part by 
Bishop Duggan — had gone into the common wreck. A few of the 
books, and two or three pictures, hastily rescued, were all that 
remained. His solicitude, however, was for more important in- 
terests and concerns. He dispatched several of the leading priests 
on missions through the country to collect funds to aid in re- 
building and restoring what had been destroyed. He encouraged 
all who had suffered to begin anew. 

The unexampled energy which characterized the rebuilding of 
Chicago infused itself into all circles and classes. The Catholics, 
owing to position and circumstances, were least able to set the 
example in this gigantic task, but, aided by generous benefactions 
from abroad, they, too, set to work and proved themselves no 
laggards in reconstruction. The cathedral was rebuilt, more 
beautiful than before; a new St. Mary's was provided, although 
in a different quarter ; the other churches were gradually re- 
newed; convents, asylums, hospitals, schools, were reared again 
in the familiar places, and, after the lapse of a few years, affairs 
were restored to a settled condition. 

Meantime the population of the city had grown beyond all 
calculation. Not only were the disasters of the fire repaired in 
an incredibly short space of time, but it was made to appear as 
if, indeed, the fire itself was only a " blessing in disguise." A 
new era, and a grander destiny, seemed to open out in prospect 
for this wonderful city. Certainly no people in history have 



The Catholic Church in Chicago. 725 

shown themselves more energetic, more public spirited, more 
broad minded, than have the men who rebuilt Chicago; nor is 
there a city in America more free from the cramping restraints 
of bigotry. 

The Catholic charities and public institutions of Chicago are 
a proof and a testimony to this honorable characteristic. People 
of every denomination, and of no denomination at all, aided in the 
hour of necessity; and a large class of non-Catholic merchants 
and others continue still to help them generously. 

After the fire, numerous additional religious orders were in- 
troduced, and nearly all the known communities and religious 
congregations — those at all events known in the United States — 
now possess a foothold and institutions in Chicago. The most 
notable, though the humblest of the late comers, The Little 
Sisters of the Poor, have a spacious house and upwards of one 
hundred inmates. 

It would be tedious and monotonous to give in detail the titles 
of the religious orders established in Chicago — the Catholic Di- 
rectory and even the Chicago Directory will serve to supply the 
hiatus for those curious in such matters. 

The number of the Catholic population of Chicago has long 
been a disputed question. 

It is certainly not fewer than 200,000 souls, and there are 
those whose judgment in the matter is entitled to consideration, 
who affirm that it approaches more nearly to 250,000, or one-half 
the entire population of the city. 

The growing importance of Chicago, it is known, had long ago 
fixed the attention of the authorities of the Holy See, and but 
for the obstacles growing out of abnormal relations and the sit- 
uation of the titular Bishop, it is not doubted that it would have 
been created a Metropolitan See at the time that dignity was con- 
ferred on Milwaukee. 

Bishop Foley would have worthily become the dignity, but it 
was ordained otherwise. 

In the prime of his manhood, in the midst of his usefulness, 
and surrounded by the honorable and shining monuments of his 
zeal, his charity and his love for religion, he was unexpectedly to 
all, called to receive the reward appointed for the faithful shep- 
herd. He died February 19th, 1879. 

With the death of the greatly lamented Bishop Foley, this 
sketch may suitably be brought to a conclusion. 

By way of supplement, a few statistics may be grouped show- 
ing the Catholic population of the City, the number of Churches, 
Schools and Academies, Asylums, Hospitals and other institu- 
tion founded by, and under the patronage of that denomination. 



726 The Great Chicago Fire. 

The number of Churches in the city, including also Hyde 
Park, and the town of Lake, both practically forming part of the 
city, is 43: 

The Catholic population of the city and the towns named, 
is not less than 250,000. 

The school attendance in the Catholic parochical Schools and 
Academies is fully 25,000. 

The College maintained by the Jesuits, St. Ignatius College, 
supports a staff of 23 professors, and has an attendance of 200 
students. St. Joseph's Orphan Asvlum shelters and provides 
for 300 Orphans. 

The German Catholic Orphan Asylum for 100, and an Asy- 
lum for Polish and Bohemian children. 

The Catholic Reformatory for boys under the charge of the 
Chri stain Brothers, contains on an everage, 175 boys. 

The House of the Good Shepherd has upwards of 300 inmates, 
under the benificent guidance of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. 

The Home for the Aged Poor, provides for 103 old people 
of both sexes, whose daily wants are ministerd to by the prodi- 
gies of charity, " The Little Sisters of the Poor." 

Three great hospitals are sustained by the Catholic religious 
orders. The Mercy Hospital by the Sisters of Mercy; St. Joseph's 
Hospital by the Sisters of Charity; and the Aiexian Hospital by 
the Aiexian Brothers. 

The Catholic Female Academies are numerous, and occupy a 
high rank. We may instance: 

St. Xavier's Academy, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy; 
the two Academies of the Sacred Heart, by the ladies of that In- 
stitute; besides several Seminaries conducted by German Sister- 
hoods. 

Very many of the Catholic churches of the city are fine and 
costly edifices — notably the Cathedral of the Holy Name, Church 
of the Holy Family (Jesuit), St. James' Church, (Wabash Ave.) 
St. John's Church (Clark and 18th,) St. Mary's, St. Columbkills, 
St. Anthony's, St. Michael's, St. Joseph, St. Anne's, St. Stanislau's 
etc. etc. 

The Catholic charitable institutions, and societies claim a 
separate chapter, but the limit of space, assigned to this sketch 
will not admit even the most meager notice. 

Considering the position and resources of the Catholic popula- 
tion, it must be admitted that prodigies of religious and charita- 
ble zeal have been shown in building up and maintaining so many 
costly institutions devoted to the service of God, and the needs 
of their fellow creatures. 

Innumerable temperance, and benevolent societies, the noble 



Imports and Exports of Chicago. 727 

organization of St. Vincent de Paul, serve to promote the wel- 
fare and elevation of the members, and assist the suffering poor 
of the city. 

By the dying wish of Bishop Foley, his vicar-general, the 
Rev. Dr. John McMullen, became the administrator of the dio- 
cese, an appointment which was subsequently confirmed by the 
authorities of the church. 

He conducted the affairs of the diocese with signal ability and 
discretion until the recent appointment and installation of the 
Most Rev. P. A. Feehan, Archbishop of Chicago, who com- 
mences his rule under happy auspices, and who already has won 
the esteem and affection of his people. 



IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF CHICAGO. 

BY M. E. COLE. 

The following act, establishing the collection district of Chi- 
cago, was passed by the Congress of the United States on the 
16th day of July, 1846: 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America, in Congress Assembled; That 
a collection district be and hereby is established upon the western 
shore of Lake Michigan, to be called the District of Chicago, 
within which the port of Chicago shall be a port of entry, on the 
western shore of said lake, from the dividing line of the State of 
Indiana and Illinois, northward, to the town and river Sheboygan, 
and inclusive of the same, which are within the territory of Wis- 
consin. A collector shall be appointed for said district, who shall 
receive the same amount of annual compensation as the collector 
of the district of Michilimackinac. 

Prior to this date Chicago was a port of delivery in the col- 
lection district of Detroit, Michigan, with Mr. "W". B. Snowhook 
as deputy collector. By this act Milwaukee was included in and 
became a part of the collection district of Chicago, and remained 
so until September 28, 1850, when Congress cut off that portion 
of the district lying in the State of Wisconsin, and included it 
in the new district of Milwaukee. 



728 



Imports and Exports of Chicago. 



The following table gives the names of those who have held 
the appointment of Collector of Customs at the Port of Chicago 
from date of establishment of the port, with date of commission 
and term of service: 




The following comparison of the numbers employed in the 
Custom House in its early history, with those of a recent date 
is one of the evidences that marks growth: 

During the year ending June 30 1850, there were employed in 
the Custom House service in the district of Chicago — 

One collector, five deputies and inspectors, one secret in- 
spector. In all, seven persons. During the year ending June 30 
18S0, there were employed, one collector, six deputy collectors, 
one surveyor, one auditor, one assistant auditor, one cashier, 
ten clerks, one watchman, three messengers, four storekeepers, 
one appraiser, two examiners, one opener and packer, twenty 
inspectors. In all, 53 persons. 

The first importation of foreign merchandise into Chicago, as 
a separate district, was made on steamboat "Boston." Pease, 
master, from Port Sarnia, Canada West; value, $47,000; duty col- 
lected, $14,00. The record does not give the name of the impor- 
ter or character of the goods. This is but one instance, of the 
many, of the imperfection of the record regarding the foreign 
commerce of Chicago in the earlier times. 

The best data that can be obtained regarding the imports, ex- 
ports, duties collected, etc., must be very far from complete 
so far as actual aggregates and volume of foreign transactions 
are concerned, because large amounts of importations have been, 
and are still being made by Chicago houses, which are received 
at, and duties collected by, the customs officers at the seaboard, 
and in no way enter into the aggregates of the foreign traffic of 
Chicago; and in exporting, very little of the enormous business 



Imports and Exports of Chicago. 



729 



really done by Chicago houses, and which, to be accurate, should 
be here exhibited, is sent through the Chicago Custom House, 
but instead, goes through those at the tidewater, thus leaving no 
data for aggregating on even basis for estimating. Then it will 
be seen, in tables that are here given, that after exhausting the 
records of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics; the Register of 
the Treasury; and the Commissioner of Customs, the figurers 
are yet incomplete, for while there is a record of duties collected 
since and including 1847, there is nothing to show the value of 
foreign commerce at the Port of Chicago until the year 1856; 
and as far as any record that might once have existed in Chicago 
regarding transactions prior to October 9th 1871, the fire at that 
date destroyed them, leaving only the records in Washington, 
on which to build the foundation of the later and wonderful 
growth of the City. 

The following table exhibits the Imports of merchandise at 
the Port of Chicago, for each year ending June 30th, beginning 
with 1856 — there being no record of prior years — compiled from 
the official records at Washington, not embracing goods im- 
ported by Chicago merchants upon which duties are paid at the 
seaboard : 



Year 


Direct 


Rec'd in Bond from 
i other districts 


Rec'd without Ap- 




Ending 


from 


praisement under 


Total Imports. 


June 30. 


Canada. 


ing Acts. 


Act of July 14/. 1870. 




1856 


$ 277,404 
326,325 


No data. 




$ 277,404 
326,325 


1857 


<i << 




1858 


222,930 


<< «« 




222,930 


1859 


93,588 


«< <« 




93,588 


1860 


60,214 


<< CI 




60,214 


1861 


77,348 


a (t 




77,348 

62,129 

134,204 


1862 


62,129 
134,204 


(I (* 




1863 


it «« 




1864 


322,352 

311,455 

1,095,585 

355,790 


<« t < 




322,352 
311,455 


1865 


tt (( 




1866 


«t n 




1,095,585 
355,790 


1867 


«« << 




1868 


344,174 
423 889 


§1,110,508 
791,114 
951,947 




1.454,682 


1869 




1,215,003 


1870 


735,894 


No data. 


1,687,841 


1871 


575,154 


1,467,345 


<« « 


2,042,499 


1872 


953,111 


1,635,627 


«( (< 


2,588,738 


1873 


1,658,625 


746,059 


§3,139,572 


5,544,256 


1874 


808,517 


282,597 


1,959,161 


3,050,275 


1875 


561,549 


178,237 


2,721,903 


3,461,689 


1876 


521,537 


498,261 


3,065,492 


4,085,290 


1877 


327.420 


656.701 


2,229,319 


3,213,440 


1878 


399,920 


309,795 


2,693,618 


3,403,333 


1879 


272,966 


304,648 


2,583,621 


3,161,035 


1880 


847,935 


667,544 


4.027,273 


5,542,752 



730 



Imports and Exports of Chicago. 



The following table shows by years the receipts at the Port of 
Chicago, from August 27, 1846, to June 30, 1880, on account of 
duties on Imports, Tonnage duty and Marine Hospital money; 
also, the expense of collecting the revenue from customs: 



Year 
Ending 
June 30. 



Duties. 



Tonnage 
Duty. 



Marine Hospital 
Collections. 



Expense of 
Collecting. 



1847 


§ 21.75 




$ 259.74 


$ 1,332.26 


1848 


1,104.90 
2,045.26 




640.47 
707.30 


1,784.83 


1849 




2,609.52 


1850 


4,256.07 




1,060.55 


4,935.21 


1851 


! 1,924.48 




776.75 


2,816.00 


1852 


10,610.85 




577.89 


2,400.00 


1853 


110,885.46 




838.40 


2,853.01 


1854 


332,8] 4.28 




1,119.50 


5,017.75 


1855 


573,921.75 
205,195.00 




1,549.05 


7,295.00 
11,971.83 


1856 


"i"" 372.50 " 


1,826.50 


1857 


143,009.23 




2,151.97 


14,536.00 


1858 


80,149.91 
23,131.89 




1,598.64 


14,097.11 


1859 


"i" "moo" 


1,044.67 


12,723.00 


1860 


68,919.53 
45,149.35 
21,628,14 
65,980.59 




1,661.13 


12,576.00 
12,525.00 
12,809.35 
12,317.45 


1861 




2,137.32 


1862 




2,753.67 


1863 


"$"9" 760. 13" 


3,432.10 


1864 


158,454.92 


10,962.97 


3,581.70 


15,670.00 


1865 


127,931.74 


28,006.60 


3,910.02 


17,213.00 


1866 


393,406.55 


22,953.85 


4,137.06 


20,146.40 


1867 


511,081.89 


32,842.78 


3,763.55 


31,585.40 


1868 


659,380.73 


31,192.72 


4,475.64 


59,831.83 


1869 


583,835.71 . 


32,859.07 


4,370.50 


70,019.82 


1870 


691,066.82 


28,135.07 


4,189.89 


58,425.30 


1871 


827,964.81 


7,922.03 


1,384.42 


65,942 00 


1872 


1,397,395.72 


9,434.84 


7,272.11 


. 100,917.99 


1873 


2,150,536.32 


8,530.56 


7,928.66 


161,662.39 


1874 


1,354,645.39 


7,959.82 


8,214.58 


134,981 97 


1875 


1,447,290.21 


3,800.13 


7,951.64 


121,308.44 


1876 


1,647,002.17 


2,451.46 


6,901.39 


144,484.10 


1877 


1,370,079.52 


2,096.54 


7,112.92 


123,818.96 


1878 


1,497,939.12 


2,846.93 


7,067.65 


98,191.92 


1879 


1,482,063.56 


4,882 06 


6,906.66 


94,210.48 


1880 


2,233.537.62 


5„382.42 


7,529.20 


119,682.50 



As has been previously stated, the exports direct from Chicago, 
as shown in the following table, are not complete, and do not 
give a correct statement of the total or aggregate export business 
at the port of Chicago, as the only available statistics are those 
covering exports sent from Chicago on through bills, it being 
impossible to separate shipments from Chicago which go through 
other custom houses, from the business of that district, thus 
affording no opportunity for Chicago to know the real magni- 
tude of its export trade. 



Imports and Exports of Chicago. 



731 



The following table shows the value of merchandise exports 
from Chicago for the years named, as shown in the record of 
direct and through business from the port: 



Year 








Ending 


Domestic. 


Foreign. 


Total. 


June 30. 








1856 


31,345,223 




$1,345,223 
1,585,404 


1857 


1,585,096 


§ 308.00 


1858 


1,713,077 




1,713,077 


1859 


1,269,385 




1,269,385 


'I860 


1,165,183 




1,165,183 


'1861 


3,522,343 




3,522,343 


1862 


2,303,275 




2,303,275 
3,544,085 


1833 


3,544,085 




1864 


8,529,034 




8,529,034 
4,590,350 
2,644,475 


1865 


4,590,350 




1866 


2,686,539 


§ 7,936.00 


1867 


1,818,463 


5,908.00 


1,824,371 


1868 


5,052.062 
8 742,256 




5,052,062 


1869 




3,742,256 
2,613,072 


1870 


2,611,678 


i 1,394.00 


1871 


5,573,660 


6,514.00 


5,580,174 


1872 


3,088,629 


1,757.00 


8,090,886 


1873 


6,039,125 


10,538.00 


6,049,663 


1874 


7,110,052 


2,884.00 


7,112,936 


1875 


3,427,759 


1,596.00 


3,429,355 


1876 


3,898,847 


47,704.00 


3,446,551 


1877 


3,413,873 


21,265.00 


3,434,638 


1878 


3,765,855 


16,044.00 


3,781,899 


1879 


2,829,582 


6,980.00 


2,836,562 


1880 


3,438,671 


6,708.00 


3,445,379 



The following table shows the number and tonnage of vessels 
built, also the tonnage of vessels documented at the port of Chi- 
cago, 111., from August, 1S46, to June 30, 1880, inclusive : 



Year 
Ending 
June 30. 


Total 

dumber 

Built. 


Total 
Tonnage. 


Registered 
Tonnage. 


Enrolled 

and licensed 

Tonnage. 


Aggregate. 


1847 








3,951.56 
10,488.62 
17,332.43 
21.242.17 
23,103.45 
25,209.30 
27,015.75 
81,041.04 
50,972.00 
57,407 80 
67,316.92 
67,001.23 
67,065.78 
77,192.05 


3,951.56 
10,488.62 
17,332.43 


1848 








1849 


13 

13 

4 

17 

9 

16 

12 

21 

9 

7 

3 


2,210.84 

1,691.21 

313.56 

1,217.28 

1,158 85 

3,255.08 

1,742.15 

4,404.47 

2,722.78 

586.42 

230.01 




1850 




21,242.17 
23,103.45 
25,209.30 


1851 
1852 . 




1853 




27,015.75 
31,041.04 
50,972.00 
57,407.30 


1854 




1855 




1856 




1857 




67 316 92 


1858 




67,001.23 


1859 
1860 


1,057.56 

1,624.00 


68,123.39 
78,816.05 



732 



Vital Statistics of Chicago. 



Year 
Ending 
June 30. 


" Total 
Number 
Built. 


Total 
Tonnage. 


; Registered 
Tonnage. 


Enrolled 

and licensed 

Tonnage. 


Aggregate. 


1861 


4 


1,537.20 
1,411.83 




85,743.66 
107,256.48 


85,743.66 


1862 


5 


'''l'S'oo.'m'' 


108,357.42 


1863 


85 


9,783.18 


1,385.59 


125,29876 


126,684.40 


1864 


96 


11,468.01 


9,682.37 


150,558.65 


160,241.07 


1865 


34 


3,521.07 


4,223.31 


71,220.55 


75,444.41 


1866 


12 


t 942.39 


2,569.50 


84,115.83 


86,685.33 


1867 


36 


1,896.22 


521.91 


94,814.14 


95,336.05 


1868 


29 


7,153.80 


3,313.61 


97,346.36 


100,753.71 } 


1869 


16 


2,346.03 


2,079.65 


101,966.22 


104,314.58 


1870 


15 


1,676.67 


956.04 


92,365.16 


93,625.49 


1871 


12 


1,771.49 


494.96 


93,423.98 


93,918.97 


1872 


6 


926.41 




95,195.04 
102,878.99 


95,195.04 
106,252.73 


1873 


18 


4,664.15 


""3,373.'74 " 


1874 


14 


3,562.98 


3,644.27 


92,322.20 


95,966.47 


1875 


12 


500.89 


8,843 06 


77,234.24 


86,077.30 


1876 


11 


775.93 


11,915.40 


76,302.85 


88,218.25 


1877 


6 


377.10 


14,980.69 


69,885.53 


84,866.22 


1878 


13 


512.13 


17,406.48 


68,579.97 


85,986.45 


1879 


5 


180.46 


13,042.61 


65,175.92 


78,218.53 


1880 


1 


37.04 


5,062.96 


71,415.06 


76,478.02 



VITAL STATISTICS OF CHICAGO. 

Among the essential conditions necessary to the growth of large 
cities, a healthy location may be set down as the first and even an 
indispensable one. Torpid livers are a millstone around the 
necks of business men, and are a stumbling-block to the progress 
of any locality whose inhabitants are afflicted by them. Happily 
for Chicago, its atmosphere is salubrious, notwithstanding the 
whole country around is flat. Its elevation above tide- water is 
600 feet as an average throughout the city, and from the great 
plateau on which it stands the general grade of the entire country 
southward to the Gulf of Mexico declines at the rate of between 
three and four inches to the mile. To the East, down the coun- 
try, along the lakes and through the valley of the St. Lawrence, 
the declination is only a trifle less per mile on the average, the 
distance to the sea being somewhat greater. Northwardly and 
westwardly, for about 500 miles, the general level of the country 
(though varied by gentle slopes and oval ridges to the west, and 
some precipitous river banks and uplifts to the north) is only a 
little above that of Chicago, and over this broad surface the wind 
plays, breathes and ventilates, dissolving and neutralizing any 
stagnant or dormant accumulation of bad air. 



Vital /Statistics of Chicago. 



733 



Table showing the number of deaths each year from 1843 to 
1879, inclusive: 



Year. 


Population. 


Deaths. 


Remarks. 


1843 


7,580 


129 




1844 


8,000 


306 


Increased mortality due to prevalence of scarlet 
fever. 


1845 


12,088 


313 


Scarlet fever prevailed. 


1846 


14,169 


359 


" •< " 


1847 


16,859 


520 


The first record of deaths by City Sexton. 


1848 


20,023 


580 


First small-pox "scare" occurred this year. 


1849 


23,047 


1,547 


Cholera epidemic — 678 deaths ; one in 36 of the 
population. 


1850 


28,269 


1,334 


Cholera epidemic — 420 deaths. 


1851 


34,434 


843 


216 deaths from cholera ; small-pox prevails. 


1852 


38,733 


1,652 


630 deaths from cholera, and 9 deaths from small- 


1853 


60,652 


1,205 


pox. 
Only one death from cholera ; 54 deaths, from dys- 
entery. 


1854 


65,872 


3,834 


Increased mortality mostly due to cholera, from 
which there were 1,424 deaths. 


1855 


80,028 


1,983 


Only 147 deaths from cholera; 150 from dysen- 
tery ; 30 from small- pox. 


1856 


' 84,113 


1,897 


Typhoid and malarial levers prevalent ; 16 deaths 
from small-pox. 


1857 


93,000 


2,170 


Remittent and typhoid fever prevalent ; scarlet fever 
appears ;*dysentery epidemic. 


1858 


90,000 


2,050 


Scarlet fever and dysentery prevail. 


1859 


95,000 


1,826 


it it <« tt <( 


1860 


112,172 


2,059 


Decrease of scarlet fever and increase of diptheria; 
of the latter 154 deaths occurred. 


1861 


120,000 


2,072 


Only 45 deaths from scarlet fever, and 112 from 
dipthei'ia. 


1862 


138,835 


2,578 


335 deaths from scarlet fever ; slight increase from 
nearly all other causes. 


1863 


160,000 


3,523 


405 deaths from scarlet fever; 115 deaths from 
small pox ; erysipelas prevails. 


1864 


169,353 


4,044 


From small-pox, 283 deaths ; typhoid fever, 192 
deaths ; erysipelas, 34 deaths. 


1865 


178,900 


3,663 


From small-pox, 57 deaths ; typhoid and malarial 
fever, 330 deaths. 


1866 


200,413 


5,931 


Deaths from cholera, 990; typhoid and malarial 
fevers, 422 deaths. 


1867 


220,000 


4,648 


Only 10 deaths from cholera; 123 deaths from 

small-pox. 


1868 


252,054 


5,984 


Small-pox, diarrhoeal diseases, scarlet and typhoid 
fevers prevail. 


1869 


280,000 


6,488 


No epidemic influences ; increase of deaths due to 
increased population. 


1870 


298,700 


7,323 


No epidemic influences ; increase of deaths due to 
increased population. 



734 



Vital Statistics of Chicago. 



Year. 


Pop'la'n. 


Death. 


Remarks. 


1871 


334,270 


6,976 


Statistics imperfect in consequence of the destruction of 
Records by the Great Fire, Oct. 9. 


1872 


367,396 


10,156 


655 deaths from small pox. Increased mortality due to 
overcrowding of workmen engaged in rebuilding the 
City. 


1873 


380,000 


9,557 


517 deaths from small pox, and 117 from cholera. 


1874 


395,409 


8,025 


No deaths from cholera ; 90 from small pox. 


1875 


407,000 


7,899 


Principal causes of death, diarrhoea and lung diseases. 


1876 


420,000 


8,573 


Scarlet fever and diptheria prevail. 


1877 


439,976 


8,026 


a << << << a 


1878 


450,000 


7,422 


Free from epidemic influences. 


1879 


480,000 


8,614 


Diptheria and scarlet fever prevailed ; no epidemic. 



The population for several of the foregoing years has been es- 
timated, and, for several, based on directory statistics. 

The following table shows the nativities of those who died in 
Chicago-in the year 1879: 



Nativities. 




REMARKS. 


Chicago........... 


4,808 

1,423 

911 

748 

668 

56 


Of the aggregate deaths this year were 4,570 
males, 4,044 females, 1,915 married, 6,095 
single, 414 widows, 190 widowers, 8,50b white, 
111 colored. Premature births, 101 ; still 
births, 692. 


U. S. — elsewhere 


Germany 

Ireland 

Other foreign countries.. 
Unknown 







Comparative mortality for the ten years ending 1879, giving 
the death rate per thousand of population: 



Year. 



REMARKS. 



1869 
1870 
1871 

1872 
1873 
1874 
'1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 



23.17 
24.52 

20.87 
27.62 
2516 
20.29 
19.41 
20.41 
18 24 
16.50 
17.23 



The death rate for 1879, for New York was 25.82 ; Brooklyn, 
20.49; Boston, 19.72: Philadelphia, 17.17; New Orleans, 
23.66; San Francisco, 14.13; Baltimore, 19.33. 



The foregoing statistics have been obtained from M. K. Glea- 
son, M. D>, Register of Yital Statistics for Chicago. 



The Calumet Club. 735 



XHE CALUMET CLUB. 
;by f. b. tuttle. 

The Calumet Club was organized on the 4th day oi April, 

1878, at a meeting of gentlemen, who, " being desirous of form- 
ing a club for social purposes," had signed a document pledging 
their personal assistance in the organization of the same. A 
charter was procured the 13th of April, the following officers 
having been elected to serve for the first year: — President, Gen. 
Anson Stager; Yice-President, Mr. Chas. J. Barnes; Treasurer 
and Secretary, Mr. F. B. Tuttle; Directors, the above mentioned 
officers and Messrs. Chas. W. Drew, Augustus !N". Eddy, J. G. 
Coleman, S. J. Glover, E. F. Getchell, Edson Keith, and Wm. 
Chisholm. 

The large residence on the northeast corner of Michigan Av- 
enue and 18th Street was secured under a three years lease, and 
thrown open for an inspection by members, Monday evening, 
May 27th, 1878. 

The formal opening occurred June 3rd, when the club gave its 
first reception to the members and their ladies. The reception 
proved a success in every particular, and the precursor of other 
equally enjoyable entertainments. In the following October, the 
Club gave its next reception, when one hundred and thirty meri- 
torious works of art were displayed on the walls of the Club 
House — a rather ambitious undertaking for a six months old 
Club. The art reception was followed by one given to the State 
Microscopical Society, the members thereof exhibiting over one 
hundred instruments with interesting objects. 

On the 24th of January, 1879, a reception was a^iven to Miss 
Minnie Hank, u as a mark of recognition of her efforts on behalf 
of the sufferers by the Chicago fire." 

In pursuance of a resolution, adopted at the first annual meet- 
ing of the Club, a reception to the Old Settlers of Chicago, resi- 
dent prior to 1840, was given on the evening of the 27th of May, 

1879, the first anniversary of the opening of the Club House. 

It was indeed a happy thought, to thus honor the men, who by 
their perseverence and " go-ahead-ativeness," had done so much to 
build up the city. They had made Chicago their home when it 
was but a small prairie village; had suffered privations incident 
to a frontier settlement, but had felt sufficient confidence to in- 
vest such funds as they accumulated, for very few brought 



736 The Calumet Club. 

money with them when they came to the "far West, " in land 
that sold in 1835 at prices that now seem incredible, as for in- 
stance, $1.25 an acre for the ground on which the Club House 
now stands. A syndicate composed of several members of the 
Club, has just purchased 54 x 163^- feet of this same property, 
with improvements, at $38,000, with the intention of tearing 
down the present building, and erecting on the site, one in every 
way suited to Club purposes, containing in addition to the ordin- 
ary reception rooms, etc., a large assembly room for art exhibi- 
tions, concerts, lectures, banquets, etc.; suites of private dining 
rooms, bowling alleys, and a grand dining room, besides eighteen 
or twenty rooms for members, the income from which will ma- 
terially aid in offsetting the interest to be paid on the amount 
of money invested in the establishment. 

But to return to the Old Settler's reception, an occasion that 
gathered together so many silvered-haired gentlemen that a lady 
who rode to the Club House with her husband, gazing through 
the open window at the unusual sight in Chicago, actually did 
her best to persuade her husband not to enter, as "it was a secret 
society, for they all wore white caps." The guests at this time 
were seated in the parlors where they listened to addresses by 
the Rev. Stephen K. Beggs, who held a service in Fort Dearborn 
in 1831; Ex-Chief Justice John Dean Caton, "the father of the 
Chicago bar," who in his own words "was an old resident of six 
weeks' standing before two hundred and fifty inhabitants could 
be counted to authorize a village incorporation under the general 
laws of the State;" Judge Henry W. Blodgett, who came to 
Chicago in 1831, a mere lad, but strong enough to be one of the 
hundred who bore muskets in old Fort Dearborn, when every 
man, woman, and child in Illinois north of Ottawa and east of 
Hock River, were gathered there for safety; Judge James Grant, 
now of Davenport, Iowa; the lion. John Wentworth, who has 
done so much to rescue from oblivion the early history of Chi- 
cago; Judge Grant Goodrich, who came to Chicago when there 
were but eight frame buildings in all the territory now covered 
by the city; the Hon. J. Young Scammon, who in an early day 
was said to be "crazy on the subject of schools," and it was 
added "that the people would not allow their money to be wasted;" 
ex-Lieut. Gov. Win. Bross, who, though not technically an old 
settler, has been by his writings and researches, more or less 
identified with early Chicago; and by Henry Strong, Esq., who 
delivered an address of welcome that was replete with facts per- 
taining to the past and present of Chicago. The Tribune of 
the following day says: — 

"The gathering was called to order at 8:30, by Mr. S. B. Cobb, 



The Calumet Club. 737 

Chairman of the Committee on Reception, * * * 

* * and, the programme being completed, the Chair- 
man farther announced that the Old Settlers would adjourn 
from business to lunch. 

And the old settlers didn't stay upon the order of their going, 
but repaired at once to the lunch-rooms adjoining. In one of 
these a long table was set with a cold supper of sandwiches, 
salads, and ices, reinforced by the delicious concoction of the 
fragrant berry. Such as could not get within this room were 
served in the reading-room. The table in the main supper- room 
was rendered additionally attractive by a clever imitation in 
sugar of Fort Dearborn, placed directly in the centre. After 
supper, Mark Beaubien got out his fiddle, "rosined" the bow, got 
the venerable instrument in tune, and in less time than it takes 
to write it, "Long John" Wentworth had a number of choice 
spirits under way to the accompaniment of the liveliest kind of 
dances. The veterans, ably assisted by some of the young men, 
who were n't exactly following out Long John's advice witli re- 
gard to keeping such hours as would result in a surplus of corn 
on their Cobb (no more were the veterans themselves), scampered 
around at an equally lively rate, and the fun was of the fast and 
furious, though innocent, kind that a lot of happy children might 
indulge in. In short, it was glorious, and the old fellows, as 
well as the young fellows — to whom it must have been a novelty — 
enjoyed it for all it was worth. The festivities were drawn out 
until some time after midnight, when the gathering broke up, 
amidst many repetitions of the unanimous verdict that the old 
settlers' reception had been an unqualified success, — one far be- 
yond the most sanguine hopes of its promoters, — and amidst a 
general wish that the reception might not be the last of its kind." 

The " general wish " was gratified; as the reception not only 
proved an occasion of great enjoyment, both to the club and its 
guests, but also caused a renewed interest in the early history of 
Chicago, it was resolved by the Board of Directors, that such re- 
ception be given on the third Thursday of May in each year 
hereafter. The success of the reception was largely due to the 
Old Settlers' Committee of the club, who labored energetically to 
perfect its details and to compile a list of the early residents who- 
were still living. On the 17th of November, Gen. and Mrs. IL 
S. Grant were received by the Club; and on the 15th of January 
a Reception was given by the Bachelor Members of the Club. 

The first reception to the Old Settlers partook largely of a 
literary character, and succeeded in awakening a renewed inter- 
est in matters pertaining to early Chicago, and in causing many 
publications relating thereto, among others, a pamphlet contain- 
47 



738 



The Calumet Club. 



ing the speeches made at the reception, and a record of the Old 
Settlers who registered that evening. The register was not as 
complete as it was hoped it would be, many of the elder gentle- 
men having been obliged to leave the reception before the 
speeches were concluded. On the occasion of the second annual 
reception to the Old Settlers, many names were added to the re- 
cord, which is particularly interesting, as the dates, etc., were writ- 
ten by the parties themselves, with the" exception of Mr. Oliver 
C. Crocker's, of Binghamptou, ■ JST. Y., who came to the Club 
House one morning in July, 1879, to register, and before doing 
so, asked the privilege of resting a few moments on the lounge, 
as he felt ill. He grew rapidly worse and died the second day 
after. The dates were alterward supplied by his family. The 
following are the 

NAMES OF THE OLD SETTLERS OF CHICAGO, WHO CAME PRIOR TO 
1840, REGISTERED AT THE CALUMET CLUB. 



NA5IE. DATE OF ARRIVAL. 


BIRTHDAY. 


AGE. PRESENT ADDRESS. 


Adams, Charles 


1835, Sept. 


Norwalk, Conn. 


65 Norwalk, Conn. 


Adams, William H. 


1837, Sept. 


Weslport, Conn. 


61 Chicago. 


Adsit, James M. 


1838, April 2. 


Spen certo wn, N. Y. 


70 Chicago. 


Alien, Edward R. 


1839, July. 


Cortland, N. Y. i 


61 Aurora, 111. 


Allen, Thomas, 


1835, Oct". 


Broome Co., N. Y. 


70 Chicago. 


Arnold, Isaac N. 


1S36, Oct. 


Hartwick. N. Y. 


64 104 Pine Street, Chicago 


Batchelor, Ezra, 


1837, June 4, 


Paxton, Mass. 


59 Milwaukee. 


Bailey, Beimel;, 


1834, Au rust, 


Harford Co., Md. 


6S Chicago. 


Baker, Franklin, 


18 58, May, 


Watertown, N. Y. 


62 Chicago. 


Baldwin, William A. 


1836, June 13, 


Austerlitz, N. Y. 


71 263*4 111. Street, Chicago 


Balsley, John, 


1839, 


Pennsylvania. 


66 Chicago. 


Bascom, Flavel, 


1833, July, 


Lebanon, Conn. 


76 Hinsdale, 111. 


Bates, John, 


1832, May 20, 


Fish kill, N. Y. 


76 Chicago. 


Beaubien, Mark, 


1826, 


Detroit, Mich. 


79 Newark, Kendall Co., Ill 


Beecher, Jerome, 


1833, July 1, 


Remsen, N. Y. 


61 Chicago. 


Beggs, Stephen R. 


1831, June, 


Rockingham Co., Va. 


78 Plainheld, 111. 


Berden, Nicholas, 


1S37, Sept. 


Germany. 


76 Englewood, HL 


Blackmail, Edwin, 


18:9, May, 


Jericho, Vermont. 


64 Chicago. 


Blarsy, Barnhard, 


1837, June, 


Germany. 


69 Chicago. 


Blake S. Sanford, 


18:14, June 15, 


Burlington, Vt. 


63 Racine, Wis. 


Blodgett, Henry W. 


1837, June, 


Massachusetts. 


57 Waukegan. 


Boone, Levi D. 


1836, May 31, 


Lexington, Ky. 


70 Chicago. 


Botsl'ord, Jabez K. 


1833. 


Connecticut. 


66 Chicago. 


Bowen, Erastus S. 


1833. 


New York. 


64 Chicago. 


Bradley, David, 


1835, Oct. 


Groton, N. Y. 


69 Chicago. 


Brad well. James B. 


1831, June, 


England. 


51 Chicago. 

59 Hyde Park, 111. 


Brookes, Ilenry, 


1833, Oct. 


England. 


Brown. Lemuel. 


1833, Feb. 


Cumberland, R. I. 


96 Kenwood, I1L 


Bryan, Frederick A. 


1836, Oct. 


England. 


59 Chicago. 


Burley, Arthur G. 


1835, Mavll, 


Exeter, N. H. 


66 Chicago. 


Burley, Augustus H. 


1837, May 25. 


Exeter. N. H. 


60 Chicago. 

70 New York City. 


Burnec, Gen. WardB 


1832, Aug. 


Pennsylvania. 


Campbell, James, 


1836, May, 


NorthumberlandJCo., 


Pa. 70 Chicago. 


Carter, Thomas B. 


183S, Sept. 


New Jersey. 


62 Chicago. 


Carpenter, Abel E. 


1833, June, 


Savoy. Mass. 


65 Aurora. 111. 


Carpenter, Philo, 


1812, 


Massachusetts. 


74 Chicago. 


Castle, Edward H. 


1839, May, 


Dutchess Co., N. Y. 


69 Chicago. 


Caton, John Dean, 


1833, June, 


Orange < 'o., N. Y. 


67 Ottawa, 111. 


Chacksfield. Geo. 


18%, Nov. 


England. 


70 Chicago. 


Church, William L. 


1836, May 16, 


Lima, N. Y. 


62 Kenwood, 111. 


Clarke, Henry W. 


1838, June, 


Watertown, N. Y. 


64 Chicago. 


Clarke, L. J. 


1836, 


Vermont, 


51 Chicago. 


Couch, James, 


1836, 


New York. 


79 Chicago. 


Clarke, Norman, 


1835, 


Vermont. 


71 Racine, Wis. 


Cobb, Silas B. 


1833, May 29, 


Montpeder, Vt. 


67 Chicago. 



The Calumet Club. 



739 



NAME. 



DATE OF ARRIVAL 



BIRTHPLACE. 



AGE. PRESENT ADDRESS. 



Cleaver, Charles, 
Cook, -Isaac, 
Crocker, Oliver C. 
Densrnore, Eieazer W. 
DeWolf, Calvin, 
Dodge, Martin, 
Dodge, W. S. 
Dodson, Christian B. 
Doty, Theodorus, 
Drummond, Thomas, 
Dyer, G. It. 
Eastman. L. 
Egan, Wiley M. 
Elliott. James F. D. 
Ellithorpe, Albert C. 
Fergus, Robert, 
Ferguson, Andrew, 
Flood, Peter F. 
Follansbee, Charles, 
Freeman, Robert, 
Freer, L. C. Paine, 
Gale, Abram, 
Gale Stephen F. 
Gates, Phi.etus W. 
Germain. George II. 
Gilbert, Samuel H. 
Goodrich, Grant, 
Goodrich, T. W. 
Goold, Nathaniel, 
Graff, Peter, 
Granger, Elihu, 
Grannis, Amos, 
Grant, James, 
Gray, Franklin D. 
Gray, George M. 
Gray, John, 
Gray, Joseph H. 
Gray, William B. H. 
Hadduck, Edward H. 
Haines, E. M. 
Hall, Philip A. 
Hamilton, Polemus D. 
Hanchett, John L. 
Harmon, E. R. 
Harmon, Issaac N. 
Hawley, John S. 
Herrick, Charles, 
Hickling. William, 
Higgins, Eben, 
Higgins, Van H. 
Hilliard, Lorin P. 
Hoard, Samuel, 
Hoffman. Michael, 
Holden, Charles N. 
Holden, James, 
Hollinshead, Wm. 
Hooker, Jas. L. 
Horton, Dennison, 
Howe, Frederick A. 
Huntington, Alonzo, 
Hovne, Thomas, 
Hubbard, Gurdon S. 
Jones, Nathaniel A. 
Kehoe, Michael, 
Kellogg, Artemas B. 
Killick, I. E. 
Kimball, Mark. 
Kimball, Martin N. 
Kimball, Walter, 
King. Tuthill, 
Knickerbocker, H. W 
Lane, Elisha B. 
Lane, James, 
Lange, Oscar. 
Laflin,, Mathew, 
Lathrop, Sam. J. J 



1833, Oct. 23, 
3S34, February, 
1831. June, 
1833, Sept. 
1S37, Oct. 31, 

1838, April, 
1S39, May, 

1833, August, 
1S37, 

3835, May, 
183o, Nov. 

1839, April, 
1836, Nov. 

1838, May 30, 
1S39, April 1, 

1839, July 1, 

1536, April, 
18:35, June, 
1836, May 9, 
1S33, 

1836, May, 
1835, May 22, 

1835, May, 

1837, June, 
1839, 

1836, June, 
1834, 
1832, 

1838, Julv, 
1836, Sept. 10, 
1836, 

1836, 

1834, April 23, 

1839, Sep. 

1834, June, 
1837, 

1836, July, 

1837, Sept. 
1833, May, 

1835, May, 

1836, June 4, 
1834, 

1835, June, 
1833, Aug. 

1833, Aug. 3, 

1537, May, 

1837, April, 

1835, March, 

1836, April, 
3837, 

1836, May, 

1836, Oct, 13, 

1837, Oct. 
1S37, 

1839, May, 
1836, May, 

1834, June, 

1836, Aug. , 

1834, July, 
1835, 

1837, Sept. 1, 

1838, Oct. 1, 

1838, Sept. 

1839, May, 

1838, Nov. 
1836, Sept. 

1839, Sept. 
1836, Oct. 
1833, Sept. 

1835, April, 

1833, Oct. 
1836, 
1836, 
3838, Sept. 

' 1837, Mav, 

1834, Sept. 



London, England. 
New Jersey. 
Union, N. Y. 
Paris. N. Y. 
Luzerne Co., Penn. 
Salt Point, N. Y. 
Salt Point, N. Y. 
Burwick, Penn. 
New York. 
Bristol, Maine. 
Clarendon, N. Y. 
Amherst, Mass. 
Ballston, N. Y. 
New York. 
St. Albans, Vt. 
Glasgow, Scotland. ' 
Lau rens, N. Y. 
Ireland. 
Massachusetts. 
Pennsylvania. 
Auburn, N. Y.' 
Warwick. Mass. 
Exeter, N. H. 
Madison Co., N. Y. 
New York, 
Bristol, England, 
New York, 
Benson, N. Y. 
New Hampshire, 
Albany, N. Y. 
New Hampshire, 
New York, 

Enfield, North Carolina, 
Shamn, Conn. 
Sherborn, N. Y. 
New York, 
Boston, Mass. 
Boston, Mass. 
Salisbury, N. H. 
Oneida, N. Y. 
New York, 
New York, 
New York, 
Fredonia, N. Y. 
Fredonia, N. Y. 
Ridgefield, Conn. 
West ford, Mass. 
England, , 

Jamestown, N. Y. 
New York, 
Unadilla Forks, N. Y. 
Westminster. Mass. 
Germany, 
New York, 
Springfield, N. Y. 
Stroudsberg, Pa. 
Sackett's Harbor, N.Y. 
Connecticut. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
Vermont, 
New York. 
Windsor, Vt. 
Rutland, Vt. 
Ireland, 



London, Eng. 
Genesee Co. N. Y. 
Saratoga, N. Y. 
Rome, N. Y. 
New York 
New York, 
New Hampshire, 
Ireland, 

G;<thenberg, Sweden, 
Southwick, Mass. 
Providence, R. I. 



64 Chicago. 

76 St. Louis. 

68 Binghampton, N. Y. 
58 Chicago. 

64 Chicago. 

61 Montague, Mich. 

66 LaFayette. Ind. 

69 Geneva, 111. 

77 Chicago. 

69 Winfleld, 111. 

67 Joliet, 111. 

65 Maywood, 111. 
52 Chicago. 

55 Mattoon, 111. 

56 Chicago. 
64 Chicago. 

77 Geneva Lake, Wis. 

64 Chicago. 

68 Chicago. 

70 Naperville. 

65 Chicago. 
82 Galewood. 
67 Chicago. 

62 Chicago. 

63 Chicago. 

76 333 Walnut St., Chicago. 

67 Chicago. 

58 Milwaukee. 
66 ( Jhicago. 

64 Chicago. 
76 Kaneville. 
54 Chicago. 

66 Davenport, Iowa. 

61 Chicago, 
60 Chicago, 

68 Jefferson. 

67 Hyde Park. 

58 Chicago. 

68 Chicago. 
Waukegan, Ills. 

60 Chicago. 

65 Chicago. 

73 Chicago. 

62 Chicago. 
52 Chicago. 

59 Aurora, 111. 

66 Racine, Wis. 

65 Chicago. 
64 Chicago. 

58 Kenwood. 
64 Chicago, 

80 205 Morgan St., Chicago. 
68 Chicago. 

63 Chicago. 
64 

74 Elkhorn, Wis 

59 Watertown.N.Y. 

63 Chicago, 
50 Chicago, 
70 Chicago, 

61 Chicago, 

76 243 White St., Chicago. 

77 Chicago. 

73 390 W. 12th St., Chicago. 
61 Chicago. 

76 Southport. 
58 Chicago. 

68 Chicago. 

69 Chicago. 

75 Chicago. 

66 Napervilie. 

64 Chicago. 
75 Chicago. 
69 Chicago. 

77 Chicago. 
68 Bristol, 11L 



740 



The Calumet Club. 



NAME. 



DATE OF ARRIVAL. 



BIRTHPLACE. 



AGE. PRESENT ADDRESS. 



Lock, William, 1339, 

Loomis, Henry, 1836, 

Loomis, Horatio G. 1834, 

Manierre, Edward, 1835, 

Marshall, James A. 1832, 
McDaniels, Alexander,1836, 

McDonnell, Chas. 1836, 

McFarran, Jno. H. 1837, 

McNeill, Geo. 1837, 

Metz, Christopher, 1837, 

Mills, John R. 1839, 

Milliken, Isaac L. 1837, 

Miltimore, Ira, 1836, 

Mohr, M. 1835, 

Morrison, Daniel, 1835, 

Morrison, Ephriam, 1834, 

Morrison, Ezekiel, 1833, 

Mueller, Jacob, 1834, 

Murphy, James K. 1835, 

Murray, R. N. 1831, 

Myrick. Willard F. 1837, 

Noble, John, 1831, 

Ogden, Mahlon D. 1836. 

Oliver, John A. 1839 

Osborn, A. L. 1835, 

Osborn, William, 1834, 

Otis, Seth T. 1837, 

Page, Peter, 1837. 

Patterson, J. G. 1836, 

Parker, John, 1837, 

Peacock, Elijah, 1837, 

Peacock, Joseph, 1830, 

Peck, Charles E. 1836, 

Pierce, Asahel, 1833, 

Plum, W. V. 1836, 

Pool, J. W. 1831, 

Porter, Hibbard, 1833, 

Powers, William G. 1835, 

Price, Cornelius, 1836, 

Prindiville. John, 1836, 
Prindiville, Redmond, 1836, 

Rand, Socrates, 1834, 

Raymond, Benj. W. 1836, 

Reader, D. L. 1833, 

Rees, James H. 1834, 

Rexiord, Stephen, 1833, 

Richards, James J. 1835, 

Rodgers, Edward K. 1835, 

Rooney, William, 1837, 

Rumsey, George F. 1836, 

Rumsey , Julien S. 1835, 

Satterlee, M. L. 1830, 

Sawyer, Sidney, 1839, 

Scammon, J. Young, 1835. 

Scott, Willis, 1826, 

Scott, Willard, 1826, 

Scoville, William H. 1837, 

Sherman, Alanson S. 1836, 

Sherman, Ezra L. 1836, 

Sherman, J. S. 1834, 

Sherman, Oren, 1836, 

Skinner. Mark, 1836,' 

Smith, David S. 1836, 

Snowhook, Wm. B. 1836, 

Sollitt, John, 1838, 

Stearns, Marcus C. 1836, 

Steele, James W. 1836, 

Stewart, Hart L. 1832, 

Stow, W. H. 1834, 

Stubbs, S. A. 1835, 

Sturtevant, Austin D. 1838, 

Sullivan, Eugene, 1837, 

Surdam, Samuel J. 1839, 

Taylor, Augustine D. 1833, 

Tavlor, Edmund D. 1835, 



Feb. 
May 3, 
Aug. 4, 

May 27, 

April, 

April, 

June, 

Oct. 

June 17, 

May, 

Oct. 

May, 

August, 

July, 

April, 

June, 

June 14, 

June, 

July, 

May 1, 

January, 

June 12, 

October, 

October, 

September 

November, 

October 8, 

July, 

October, 

September, 

May, 

September 

August 23, 
February, 
June 5, 
July, 

August 11, 
June 27, 
July, 

November, 
"May,; 
June 14, 
July 28, 

May, 
September 

August 26, 

May, 

November 

September, 
Nov. 1, 
'July, 
May, 



August, 
'Nov. 7, 

July, 

July, 

March, 

May. 

June, 

April, 



Philadelphia, 66 

Burlington, Vt. 62 

Burlington, Vt. 64 

New London, Conn. 66 

London, Eng. 70 

Bath, N. Y. 64 

Ireland, 71 

Whitehall N. Y. 67 

England. 62 

Baden, Germany, 57 

Connecticut, 65 

Saco, Maine, 63 
Verm't, [died Junel0,'79]66 

Switzerland, 71 

New York, 59 

Oneida Co., N. Y. 64 

New York, 68 

Rochbach, Ger. 68 

Ireland, 54 

Washington, N. Y. 64 

Bridgeport, Conn. 69 

Yorkshire, England. 76 
Walton, Dela. Co., N. Y. 67 
Elizabeth.Union Co.,N.J. 64 

Watertown, Conn. 64 

Ridgefield, Conn. ' 67 

Watertown, N. Y. 67 

Pompey, N. Y. 64 

Newburg, N. Y. 63 

Boston, Mass. 70 

. England. 62 

England. 66 

Montpelier, Vt. 64 

East Calais, Vt. 66 

New York City. 66 

Philadelphia. 75 

Jefferson Co ,"N. Y. 72 

Auburn, N. Y. 65 

i New York City. 59 

Ireland. 54 

Ireland. 53 

Wendell. Mass. 76 
Rome, Oneida Co., N. Y. 77 

Milton, Pa. 68 

Stroudsburg, Pa. 66 

Charlotte, Vt. 75 

Salina, N. Y. 54 

Ipswick, Mass. 66 

Ireland. 67 

Troy, N. Y. 59 

Batavia, N. Y. 56 

Litchfield, Conn. 65 

Albany, N.Y. 68 

, Whitefield, Maine. 66 

New York. 69 

New York. 71 

New York. 56 

1, Vermont. 68 

Newton, Conn. 61 

, Newtown, N.Y. 61 

Vermont. 63 

Manchester, Vt. 65 

Camden, N. J. 63 

Ireland. 64 

York, England. 65 

Naples, N. Y. 63 

New York. 71 

New York. 76 

Utica, N. Y. 72 

State of New Jersey. 71 

Thetlord, Vt. 63 

Ireland. 68 

Troy, N. Y. 62 

Hartford, Conn. 84 

Virginia. 76 



Chicago. 

Burlington, Vt. 

Naperville. 

Prairie Ave., Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Willmette. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Janesville, Wis. 

W r atertown, Wis. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Naperville. 

Chicago. 

743 Sedgw'k St.,Chicago. 

Elmhurst, 111. 

Chicago. 

Laporte, Ind. 

Chicago. 

Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Chicago. 

Vernon, 111. 

Hinsdale, Mich. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Aurora, 111. 

149 W. Wash. St Chicago. 

Chicago.Died May 30,'79 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Des Plaines, 111. 

Calumet Ave., Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Blue Island, 111. 

Evanston. 

359 Ontario St., Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

301 Ontario St., Chicago. 

Hyde Park. 

Chicago. 

Naperville. 

Chicago. 

Waukegan. 

Riverside. 

Northfield, 111. 

E. Van Buren Street. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago. 

Chicago, 

Chicago, 



The Calumet Club. 



'41 



NAME. 

Taylor, L. D. 
Taylor. W. H. 
Tripp, Robinson, 
Turner, John, 
Turtle, Frederick, 
Vail, Walter, 
VanNortwick, John, 
VanOsdel, John M. 
Wadhams, Seth, 
Waite, George W. 
Walter, Joel C. 
Watlon, Nelson C. 
Wayman, Samuel, 
Wentworth, John, 
Whitehead. Henry, 
Wilcox, Sextus N. 
Willard, Alonzo J. 
Williams, Eli B. 
Wilson, John L. 
Winship, James. 
Wolcott, Alexander, 
AVood. Alonzo C. 
Wright, Freeman G. 
Wyman, "William, 
Yates. Horace H. 



DATE OF ARRIVAL. 



BIRTHPLACE. AGE. PRESENT ADDRES3. 



1834, June, 

1834, June, 
1834, 

1835, April, 

1836, January 3, 
1839, April, 
1837, 

1837, June 9, 

1835, July 4, 
1839, Nov. 15, 

1837, June, 
1834, January, 
1833, August, 

1836, October 25, 
1833, September, 
1839, October, 

1838, September, 

1833, April, 
18:54, May, 

1836, November, 

1834, June 4, 
1834, August, 
1832, September, 

1837, June, 

1838, March 14, 



Hartford, Conn. 
Newport, Conn. 
Vermont. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
New York. 
Rahway, N. J. 
New York. 
Baltimore. 
Goshen, Conn. ' 
Walcott Village N. Y. 
Goshen, Conn. 
Essex County, N. Y. 
England. 
Sandwich, N. H. 
Chatham, England. 
Stockbridge. 
Lancaster, N. H. 
Tolland, Conn. 
New York City. 
Palmyra, N. Y. 
Middletown, Conn. 
Farnham, L. C. 
Shaftsburg, N. Y. 
England. 
New York. 



58 Chicngo. 

71 Brooklin, Miss. 
74 Chicago. 

72 Chicago. 
70 Chicago. 

65 Newburg, N. Y. 
70 Kane Co., Hi. 

67 Chicago. 

66 Elm hurst, 111. 
60 Hyde Park. 

68 Chicago. 

63 San Francisco, Cal. 

69 Chicago. 

64 Chicago. 

68 Chicago. 
53 Chicago. 
62 Chicago. • 
80 Chicago. 

65 Chicago. 
53 Chicago. 
64 Chicago. 

69 Granby, P. Q. 
78 Racine, Wis. 
62 Chicago. 

64 Chicago. 



-[Registered at the first reception or prior to the second. 
*Deceased. 



The second reception was less formal and more social in its 
character, a greater opportunity being given to renew old ac- 
quaintances, at least one instance occurring of two former room- 
mates meeting, who had not seen each other for forty years. 
After prayer by the Rev. Flavel Bascom, of Hinsdale, 111., an 
address of welcome was delivered by the President of the club, 
Gen. Anson Stager, and responded to by Judge Blodgett. Music 
of "ye olden time" was dispensed by Mark Beaubien, and that of 
the present day by the Chicago Quartette. 

Sapper was served in the three billiard rooms, the central 
ornament being a floral ship, the "Illinois," named after the first 
schooner that entered the Chicago River. Some difference of 
opinion existed among the old settlers in reference to the first 
vessel having been the "Illinois," but Mr. James L. Hooker, 
who was a passenger on the "Illinois," wrote under date of May, 
15, 1880, from Watertown, N". Y., that he wished to correct a 
statement made at the first old settlers' reception, that the first 
schooner to enter the river was the "Ariadne," but that it was 
the "Illinois," Captain Pickering. Believing that, as he says, 
he "knows whereof he writes," it was decided to put the name 
"Illinois" on the side of the floral [ship, for if the schooner 
was not the "Illinois" it ought to have been. Besides the above 
mentioned letter, there were a great many other interesting ones 
received, recalling events that occurred in the early days of Chi- 
cago. These letters are mounted in an album for preservation, 
and are highly prized by the Club. Among those that have 
already been published, was one from Mr. A. F. Clarke, now 



742 The Calumet Club. 

living in Marietta, Georgia, giving a brief account of the first 
club ever organized in Chicago. It was formed in the winter of 
1836-7, and was called the Pickwick Club, the members assum- 
ing the names of Dickens' characters." 

The Calumet Club closed its first year, with a membership of 
two hundred and twenty-seven, and with $2,500 invested in 
government bonds. The second fyear the members numbered 
three hundred and sixty, and the bonds amounted to $5,000, par 
value, with $3,540.92. cash on hand. At the present time the 
■membership is nearly four hundred, 'and the surplus funds a- 
mount to $13,000. The club proposes to make a special feature 
of its library, and especially of matters pertaining to early Chi-, 
cago. In addition to possessing a number of books relating to 
the city that are now out of print, the club has acquired by gift, 
about two hundred cabinet-size photographs of the Old Settlers, 
a file of the Chicago American for the winter of 1839-40, and a 
map of Chicago in 1834, by J. S. Wright. 

The old settlers committee has lost during the past year, a 
member that was highly esteemed by all who knew him, Mr. 
James II. Eees. The committee as at present constituted, con- 
sists of the following gentlemen: Silas B. Cobb, Horatio G. 
Loomis, Arthur G. Burl ey, Frederick Tuttle, Marcus C. Stearns, 
Joel C. Walter, Mark Kimball, Jerome Beecher and Franklin 
D. Gray. 

The present officers of the Club are Gen. Anson Stager, Presi- 
dent; Mr. Edson Keith, 1st Vice President; Mr. A. G. Van 
Sohaick, 2nd Yice President; Mr. F. B. Tuttle, Secretary and 
Treasurer; and Messrs. W. F. Blair, Alfred Cowles, J. W. Doane, 
Chas. W. Drew, Jas. B. Goodman, Edson Keith, X. L. Otis, K. 
L. Perry, Anson Stager, F. B. Tuttle, and A. G. Yan Schaick, 
Directors. The success of the Club is due in a great measure, 
to the general spirit of concord that has existed among the mem- 
bers. May they continue to 

" Smoke the Calumet, the 

Peace-Pipe; 

And as brothers live 

henceforward." 



Western Associated Press. 7i3 



THE WESTERN ASSOCIATED PRESS. 

Although the electric telegraph is to-day the indispensable 
auxiliary of the Associated Press, yet news had been collected, 
transmitted and published through individual and associated 
effort for several years prior to the establishment of the Morse 
line between Washington and Baltimore. To the success of the 
news enterprise of James Gordon Bennett of the New York 
Herald, from 1835 to 1842 can be traced the origin of the Asso- 
ciated Press. It is related that one morning after the Herald 
had published some exclusive news, a knock was heard at the 
door of the editorial rooms of that paper. 

'"Come in!' answered the editor. The tall, gaunt figure of 
David Hale (of the Journal of Commerce) entered. One of the 
magnates of Wall street journalism was in the office of a despised 
penny paper! But Hale was a practical man. He saw the 
handwriting plainly enough. There was very little circumlocu- 
tion about him. 

" 'I have called,' said he, 'to talk about news with you. Have 
you any objections?' 

" 'None,' replied the penny editor. 'Am always pleased to 
talk on that subject.' 

" 'We propose to join the Herald in getting news,' continued 
Mr. Hale. 'Have you any objection to that*?'" 

There was no objection, and out of this conversation grew the 
system of cooperation known as the Associated Press. At first 
the associated arrangements were confined to marine news, after- 
wards to the obtaining of news from the National Capitol by 
means of pony express, and from European steamers by carrier 
pigeons and fast boats. In 1844 the telegraph line came into 
limited use. But it was not until the winter of 1818-9 that the 
New York Associated Press, the parent of all of the associations, 
was formed. At first the Association embraced five papers. 
Now, after over thirty years the seven leading papers of that city 
constitute the corporation. Other cooperating Associations, like 
the Western Associated Press and the New England Associated 
Press, have since been organized, and these together constitute 
what is known as the "Associated Press." 

The New York organization did not acquire much power and 
influence, until after 1851, when under the management of D. 
II. Craig, a man possessing remarkable energy and versatility of 

^Hudson's Journalism in the United States. 



744 Western Associated Press. 

talent. " Mr. Craig had been an independent news collector in 
1844^5, and a successful one in flying carrier pigeons, under 
great difficulties and obstacles, from the Cunard steamers, as they 
approached Boston. He sold his news to any one who would 
purchase — Jacob Little or James Gordon Bennett — and he at- 
tracted the attention of the Executive Committee in 1849, or 
thereabouts, and was appointed the local agent of the Association 
at Halifax, to look especially after the European news." He was 
so successful, and exhibited such superior business talent, he was 
invited in 1851 to become the general agent, and assist in arrang- 
ing the details and carrying out the news plans of the Associa- 
tion, which were to follow the rapidly-extending telegraph lines 
and organize a system for the collection and distribution of news. 

The newspaper has always accompanied the march of civiliz- 
ation in America. The Pittsburgh Gazette was established as 
early as 1788, when there were at the junction of the Alleghany 
and Monon^ahela, a few stras^linff houses around a fort: and in 
the following year, on the 28th ol August, John Bradford, who 
knew nothing of the printing business, issued the first number 
of The Kentucky Gazette, at Lexington, then the centre of imi- 
gration for the Ohio Valley. The Cincinnati Gazette, which is 
to-day one of the great newspapers of the United States, dates 
its origin back to JNov. 9, 1793, when the Centinelof theNoiih- 
^oestem Territory was first issued. William Maxwell was the 
pioneer printer in this territory, and, if the claim of the Gazette 
is admitted, in a sense, the founder of that paper. This claim is 
good, if the Liberty TIall and Cincinnati Mercury, which was 
established in 1804, was the successor to the Gentinel, as the for- 
mer paper was consolidated with the Cincinnati Gazette in 1806. 

It is only a few years since the name Liberty Hall was dropped 
from the heading, and it is still familiar to thousands of the pa- 
trons of the Gaztte. The scope of this sketch does not admit of 
the introduction of accounts of the origin of the leading papers 
of the cities of the West, but the history of the Gazette, the 
pioneer paper of "the territory northwest of the Ohio," and a 
member of the Western Associated Press, the most extensive 
news organization in the world, has a peculiar interest. Estab- 
lished in a wilderness, it has aided in the work of civilization, has 
witnessed the union of the Colonial States expand into a mighty 
nation of 50,000,000 of people, the growth of cities hundreds of 
miles further w T est rivalling and surpassing Cincinnati, the rise 
and fall of hundreds of newspapers, and the remarkable success 
of a few wealthy and powerful journals with which it is co-oper- 
ating to-day. Distinguished men have directed its course and 
contributed to its editorial columns. It early obtained great in- 



Western Associated Press. 745 

fluence and reputation, as an exponent of political principles, 
under the management of Charles Hammond, one of the most 
remarkable men this country has ever produced, and later, while 
maintaining this influence under the management of Richard 
Smith, has come to be recognized as able in all of the depart- 
ments that go to make up a great newspaper* The Gazette was 
first issued as a daily, June 25, 1827, and seven years later, in 
1834, when Stephen S. L'Homraedieu, son-in-law to Charles 
Hammond, was business manager, was printed on the first 
steam power-press introduced in the northwest. 

The telegraph companies were the pioneers in the news-col- 
lecting business west of Philadelphia. There was very little 
commercial business done, and few private messages sent. The 
managers of the line shrewdly directed their operators to employ 
their leisure time in transmitting news items for the daily 
papers, for which the latter paid whatever they chose. The en- 
tire amount collected per week from the Cincinnati papers, was 
eighteen dollars, and occasionally this meagre assessment was 
not forthcoming. 

Gen. Anson Stager dwells with delight on early experiences in 
the construction of telegraph lines west of Philadelphia, and the 
supplying of news despatches to the struggling newspapers in 
the Ohio valley. Cincinnati then boasted of twice as many 
dailies as she can show now, and although suspensions were fre- 
quent, the number was rarely decreased for more than a day — so 
great w T as the demand for "organs," and so inconsiderable was the 
expense of getting out a daily paper in comparison with the cost 
of publication to-day, even in cities of the third or fourth class. 
The circulation of each was then a few hundred, and the news 
was procured from the columns of exchanges. This was the sit- 
uation when the first wire was carried over the mountains by the 
Atlantic & Oiiio Telegraph Company, and connected with a 
battery in Pittsburg. After that the age of news for cities 
further west did not reach beyond one Sabbath. Foreign com- 
mercial news was then, as now, of great importance to business 
men, and upon the arrival of vessels at Halifax, was forwarded 
as rapidly as possible to Boston, New York and Philadelphia, 
and thence by wire to Pittsburg. From the latter point it was 
carried by fast riders, who changed horses every ten miles, to 
Steubenville, Wheeling, Zanesville, Columbus, Dayton and Cin- 
cinnati. The work of this enterprising post-news company 
ceased in a few months, as a new company, called the Pittsburgh, 
Cincinnnti and Louisville Telegraph Company, took up the 
enterprise of constructing lines in the west : and the route of the 
post-riders grew shorter, and the news fresher day by day, until 



746 Western Associated Press. 

the Queen City was reached. The wire reached Cincinnati in 
the spring of 1847, whereas the line of the Atlantic and Ohio 
Company had been opened in Pittsburgh in the last days of 
December, 1846. The route to Cincinnati was by the National 
Boad, thence along the river to Louisville. A third company 
was organized, called the Ohio and Mississippi Telegraph Com- 
pany, which extended a wire from Louisville to St. Louis ma Yin- 
cennes. These different companies interchanging business, their 
lines constituted a system. Another system, comprising the lines 
of the O'Reilly and Lake Erie Telegraph Company, extended from 
Buffalo to Chicago, via Cleveland, Toledo and Detroit. This 
found a competitor in the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Com- 
pany, having lines from Buffalo to Milwaukee, and so sharp was 
the rivalry between the managers, for months there was blood on 
the face of the moon. A third system comprised the Caton lines 
in Illinois and Iowa. 

In the year 1847, the first notable feat in telegraphing a long 
distance was performed. Henry Clay spoke at Lexington, on the 
13th of November of that year, on the war with Mexico. An 
abstract of the speech was made, expressed to Cincinnati, and 
thence telegraphed to the New York Herald. A few weeks 
after that, an attempt was made to get through the message of 
President Polk from Philadelphia, for the use of the papers of 
Cincinnati. It required three days and nights continuous work 
to transmit it. To-day the same amount of matter could be 
transmitted from "Washington to Chicago, with the aid of ten 
wires, which could easily be supplied by the Western Union Tele- 
graph Company, without seriously interfering with commercial 
business and social messages, in from forty to sixty minutes. 
Then everything was printed in Morse characters, on strips of 
paper, which passed over a reel, and it was necessary for the 
most intelligent and experienced operator to spell out the words 
for another who wrote them down. On this important occasion, 
Mr. Stager, who was in charge of the wire, would trust no one 
else, and he read while Richard Smith, then acting as the agent 
of the press, and the most prominent editors, laboriously wrote 
down the words of the President. Among these editors, was 
John Brough, of the inquirer, who, in later times, was distin- 
guished in railroad circles, and as the ablest of the war Gover- 
nors of Ohio. Most of the editors gave out before the task was 
completed, but Brough remained with Smith and Stager to the 
end. The ending was so truly absurd as to provoke laughter 
from the three tired workers, and offered a momentary compen- 
sation. It was in these words: "God and Liberty, James K. 
Polk." 



Western Associated Press. 747 

Some of the papers receiving the manuscript thus, printed the 
message without alteration, to the scandal of the administration 
and all good democrats. There was great indignation at Wash- 
ington, and the head of the offending operator, who had taken 
such a liberty with a grave public document was demanded. The 
telegraphic officials, somehow, could never find the culprit, but at 
this late day there is no harm in letting out the secret : [The 
words "God and Liberty" were added by Mr. James D. Eeid, then 
Superintendent at Pittsburgh, who was so much elated at reach- 
ing the end of the long State paper, that he expressed his feel- 
ings through the aid of Morse and " chained lightning," in the 
well known words of Santa Anna. This is the story of the first 
attempt to transmit by wire a President's message to the 
papers of the West. 

Many years passed, and many papers died before the New 
York Associated Press entered the Western field in the per- 
son of D. JEL Craig, General Agent. It was after the ground 
cultivated by the telegraph companies and local agents began to 
give promise of an abundant harvest. A brief report was made 
up at Buffalo, not exceeding fifteen hundred words per day, not 
extending later than 11 o'clock p. m., for which the New York 
Association demanded and received excessive rates. The arbi- 
trary management at New York then extended to the control of 
the specials of the \ seven papers of that city. But in the West 
a broader system was being developed, which was rapidly ex- 
tended by the war of the rebellion. Henceforth the great papers 
of Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville, Pitts- 
burg, Cleveland and Detroit, became noted for special enterprises, 
and no longer were dependent on New York. Dissatisfaction 
with the management in the East was manifested as early as 
1861, when a meeting of representative Western publishers was 
held in Indianapolis, to devise some method of relief. A commit- 
tee consisting of Jos. Medill, of the Chicago Tribune, and H.N. 
Walker, of the Detroit Free Press, was appointed to secure an 
act of incorporation. This was not accomplished until 1865, in 
which year the Legislature of Michigan granted the desired char- 
ter. On the 22nd of November following, the Western Asso- 
ciated Press was formally organized in the city of Louisville. 
J. D. Osborn of the Journal of that city, was first chosen Presi- 
dent, but subsequently it being necessary to have the principal 
office in the State of Michigan, by which the charter was granted, 
II. N. Walker, of the Free Press, and II. E. Baker, of the Tri- 
bune, of Detroit, were made President and Secretary, respectiv- 
ely. The independent attitude of the Western papers brought 
on a conflict with the New York papers. In 1866 a vigorous 



748 Western Associated Press. 

and relentless war between the two associations was waged. Two 
separate reports were transmitted, and the claims of each asso- 
ciation were pressed at a large expenditure of money. D. IT. 
Craig cast his fortunes with the Western press, and his expe- 
rience was invaluable in such a contest. The result was the tri- 
umph of the Western papers. Peace was declared, and a con- 
tract between the two associations was formed in 1867. Since 
then there has been co-operation in the work of supplying the 
press of the United States with news. 

The business affairs of the Western Associated Press have for 
the most part been conducted, by an executive committee con- 
sisting of Joseph Medill, Richard Smith and Walter N. Hal de- 
man. The present organization is as follows : 

President, Murat Halstead of the Cincinnati Commercial; 
Vice President, Joseph Pulitzer, of the St. Louis Post- Despatch; 
Secretary, H. E. Baker, of the Detroit Post and Tribune; Di- 
rectors, Richard Smith, of the Cincinnati Gazette; W. Is". Halde- 
man, of the Louisville Courier -Journal; Wm Penn Nixon, of the 
Chicago Inter-Ocean; D. M. Houser, of the St. Louis Globe- 
Democrat; Joseph G. Siebeneck, of the Pittsburgh Chronicle; 
Ira P. Jones, of the Nashville American; I. F. Mack, of the 
Sandusky Register. 

The growth of the newspaper business in the West has been 
very remarkable, and I propose giving a few figures to illustrate 
it: 

The Sentinel of the Northwestern Territory, of January 11th, 
1794, was about equal to one page of its successor, the Cincin- 
nati Gazette of to-day. The Sentinel gave news from France 
dated Sept. 10th, 1793; from Portland, Me., Nov. 11th; from 
Baltimore Nov. 22d. Cincinnati was then four weeks distant 
from Pittsburg by boat. To-day the cities are a few hours dis- 
tant by railroad, and conversation may be had by wire without 
inconvenience or loss of time. The Gazette, in the columns of 
its eight pages, contains an accurate register of the tone and 
transaction of the great commercial marts, and full accounts of 
the most interesting political and social events of the previous 
day throughout the whole world. The Sentinel was printed 
from a hand press, at the rate of a few hundred an hour. The 
Gazette is printed from a Hoe perfecting press, and folded, cut 
and pasted at the rate of from 15,000 to 20,000 copies per hour. 
As striking a contrast would be shown by comparing the first 
number of the St. Louis Republican issued in 1808, with the 
issue of any day in 1880. 

The growth of the Chicago papers has been more rapid and 
remarkable. Like the city/ they are to be set down as the pro- 



Western Associated Press, 749 

duction of tlie energy and enterprise of one generation. "When 
Joseph Medill took charge of the Tribune in the spring of 1855, 
its daily paying edition was just about 1200 copies, the Tri- 
Weekly 250, and the Weekly 1000. The Associated'Press report, 
which was all the telegraphic matter received, then amounted to 
one column, all told, and cost $45 per week. There was not 
much change or enlargement of tr'egr phic news until 1860, 
when a "midnight" report was hi de u • at Kew York for the 
Associated Press at an additional ost of $.10 a week to each 
paper. During the campaign the Triune paid out about $100 
a week for specials. The war caused this to multiply two or 
three times, say $250 per week — about the present average of a 
day. The total cost of issuing the Tribune in 1855 was about 
850,000, and for the year 1880 considerably over $500,000. The 
revenue has increased at a greater ratio, and the Tribune is to- 
day one of the most profitable newspapers in the world. 

Wilbur F. Storey purchased the Chicago Times in 1862, and I 
believe paid about $12,500 for it. The following approximate 
statement will give a good idea of its growth: 

1862— Cost of telegraphic news about". \' $ 10,000 

Other expenses about 60,000 

8 70,000 

1875 — Cost of telegraphic news $ 73,000 

Other expenses 460,000 

8533,000 

1879— Cost of telegraphic news $ 85,000 

Other expenses 440,000 



>,000 

Telegraphic rates were less in 1879 than in former years, and 
so of white paper and other expenses. In 1880, expenditures 
and receipts have both been much larger than they were in 1879. 
Mr. Storey has put a value of $l,500,000>n his newspaper es- 
tablishment. 

In 1869, the members of the Western Associated Press paid 
the Western Union Telegraph Company for tolls on specials, 
$175,501.23. The same papers during the year ending June 
30, 1880, received the enormous amount of 29,627,384 words of 
special news, for which they paid for tolls, the sum of $353,672.- 
39. They paid out also for what is known as " Regular," or As- 
sociated Press Report, $141,901.32. Thus the papers of the 
Korthwest and of the States of Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkan- 
sas, paid nearly one-half of the amount collected of the press of 



750 Western Associated Press. 

the United States, by the Western Union Telegraph Company. 
During the same period, the papers of the New York Associated 
Press, paid the Tel. Co. for specials, §195,216.62, and for ''Regu- 
lar " dispatches transmitted to New York, $62,953.91. 

The above figures do not include the cost of collecting and 
editing, which was about as much more. 

The reports of the "Western Associated Press are collected at 
two great centres — New York and Cincinnati, — and the other 
large cities, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, 
Indianapolis, St. Louis, Louisville, Nashville and Memphis, re- 
ceive on circuits. This report sent from New York, passes 
through a repeater at either Cleveland or Pittsburgh, to Cincin- 
nati and Chicago simultaneously. The latter repeats to Mil- 
waukee, St. Paul, etc., and the former to Indianapolis and St. 
Louis on one circuit, and to Louisville, Nashville, and Memphis 
on another. The report collected at Cincinnati, is relayed on the 
circuits before mentioned, and on another circuit for Pittsburgh, 
Cleveland, and Detroit. At Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Mil- 
waukee, and St. Louis, condensed reports are prepared and sent 
out on other wires to the papers of the interior cities. Report is 
also made up at Cincinnati for New York, and at Chicago for 
Cheyenne, Denver, Salt Lake, Sacramento and San Francisco. 

Wm. HenpwY Smith. 



The Chicago Jjixo Institute. 751 



THE HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO LAW INSTITUTE. 

BY HON. ELLIOTT ANTHONY. 

In the year 1852 I came to reside in the city of Chicago, hav- 
ing been admitted to the bar at Oswego, New York, in June, 
1851. I had but very few books and felt the need of works of 
reference every day. The firm of Scammon & McCagg had at 
that time by far the largest library of anybody in town, and their 
office was constantly resorted to by members of the profession to 
consult their books, and access to them was never refused. They 
were very kind to young men, but those of us who were just 
starting out in life thought it would be much better to have a 
public library, which should be open to all and which should be 
obtained by aggregating our capital. I broached the subject to 
a number of my acquaintences and associates, and they all agreed 
that it was a proper thing to do, and ought to be done. 

Some time before this, a voluntary association had been formed 
for the establishment of a Law Library, and was actually in ex- 
istence, and they had procured a few books, but it had fallen into 
decay, and many volumes which had belonged to sets of reports 
and treatises had disappeared, so that it did not amount to much. 

I had heard of the New York Law Institute, which had been 
founded by Chancellor Kent, and ascertained [that it was an in- 
corporated institution, and. was in successful operation, and I 
resolved to visit New York and investigate it. 

Accordingly, in the summer of 1855 or 1856, I went to New 
York and called at the rooms of the Institute, which were at that 
time in the old City Hall, and examined its charter and by* 
laws, and all of its workings. I found that it had been chart- 
ered by a special act of the General Assembly of the State of 
New York, was a stock company, that its shares were 100 dollars 
each, which the subscribers paid in installments extending over 
some three or fonr years, and that said shares were subject to a 
yearly assessment of 25 dollars. It was at that time in a most 
nourishing condition and had on its roll of members all of the 
leading lawyers in the city. 

They did not, at that time, have any printed copies of either 
the charter or by-laws, and as I did not have time to copy them, 
returned without them. In the spring of 1857, I think Sand- 
ford B. Perry, Esq., came here from Boston to practice his pro- 
fession, and we formed a partnership. 

He came on first to look over the town before locating perma- 



752 The Chicago Law Institute, 

nently, and the matter of establishing a public Law Library was 
broached to him, and he became interested in the project and on 
his return East procured copies of the charter of the old Athe- 
naeum and some other libraries, and when he came back brought 
them with him. The provisions of these charters and by-laws 
were examined, but did not suit either of us, and I accordingly 
resolved to write for a copy of the charter and by-laws of the 
New York Law Institute. 1 wrote to Alexander Spaulding, 
Esq., late Judge of the Marine Court of the city of New York, 
whom I knew as a fellow-graduate of Hamilton College. In due 
time the charter and by-laws came to hand, and, to ni} r surprise, 
made a large package, and with them a bill for copying of some 
twenty-five dollars. This was to me, at that time, a large sum of 
money. After some delay, I got together the amount, enclosed 
it in a letter and sent it to Mr. Spaulding, but it was lost in the 
mail, and I had to make it up. 

The Legislature was to hold a session in the winter of 1857, 
and Mr. Perry and myself set to work to draw up a charter. 

Judge John M. Wilson at that time was Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas and Yan H. Higgins had been elected a member 
of the lower House. It was thought that if their names were 
put in as corporators that it would stand a better chance of pass- 
ing than if obscure and unknown names were inserted. Accord- 
ingly they were fixed upon as corporators and finally my own 
name was added as a mere make- weight, as I was wholly un- 
known. 

After a considerable deliberation, the charter of the "New York 
Law Institute was adopted as a model, and the act of incorpora- 
tion drawn up. As I had never been to Springfield or seen any 
legislative body, I resolved to visit Springfield and see to its 
passage. 

I accordingly visited Springfield, explained the matter to Mr. 
Higgins and other members of the General Assembly and it was 
introduced, and put upon its passage. 

I kept watch of the proceedings, but the session was wearing 
away and I could not learn anything of its fate, although assured 
that it would finally pass. Fearing, however, that it might be 
buried beneath the vast number of private bills — which at that 
time absorbed almost the entire time of the Assembly — I again 
went to Springfield to see about it, and on the 18th clay of Feb- 
ruary, 1857, was present when the final roll-call was made. I 
went with the Engrossing Clerk to the Governor, saw it signed, 
and procuring a certified copy of the same from the Secretary 
of State returned home with it. In 1857-8 the new Court House 
was in the process of erection, and I was very anxious to have a 



The Chicago Law Institute. 753 

room set apart for the future library. Hon. Charles B. Farwell 
was at that time County Clerk and potent in all county matters, 
and with his aid and assistance a room was assigned the Library, 
although not a book had been purchased and the Institute had not 
even been organized. The room was a large one, with an alcove 
looking out upon Randolph street. Nobody but Mr. Farwell, 
myself and the building committee knew anything about this 
assignment of the room, and things progressed favorably until 
one day the Board of Supervisors came together, inquired into 
the matter and resolved to change everything, cut up the room 
and give the alcove to the Coroner. Mr. Farwell?sent for me 
and I used all my powers to persuade them not to do it, but they 
were incorrigible. Finally, in despair, I went to Judge Manierre 
and told him what was up, and he immediately adjourned his 
court and went for the Board individually and collectively, and. 
after a great deal of argument and persuasion, order was restored, 
the partition which had been set up to separate the alcove from, 
the main room was taken down and things restored as they 
were ante helium. 

The Institute was in due time properly organized, with Judge 
John M. Wilson as President, Yan H. Higgins, Vice-President, 
and myself as Secretary. 

Judge Manierre took a great interest in the matter, advanced, 
the money to buy carpets and tables, and fit up the rooms, and 
gave it his support till the day of his death. An arrangement 
was made with the members of the Old Law Library, by which 
we took their books and gave them stock in the new corporation. 

A part of the money which I had to pay for the charter and by- 
laws of the New York Law Institute, was allowed me, and the 
Institute grew in favor, and books were purchased as the funds 
were supplied by subscription to the stock. The charter was a 
liberal one, and contained all the powers necessary for such an 
institution, and in October, 1871, contained about 7,000 volumes, 
which were valued at about $30,000. All this collection was de- 
stroyed by the great fire of the 8th and 9th of October, 1871, to- 
gether with the court house. "We immediately undertook the 
task of restoring it. In this we were most generously aided 
by gifts from personal and professional friends in all parts of the 
country. Through the influence of Governor Hoffman, of New 
York, we received from the State of New York, a complete set 
of all the New York reports, and from the State of Indiana, a 
full set of their reports. From a report for the year 1871, now 
lying before me, I extract the following: 

" The annual meeting of the Institute, required by its by-laws 
to be held on the first Monday in November, in each year, was 
duly called. 



754 The Chicago Law Instil ate. 

"It convened November 6, 1871, within the shattered walls of 
the court house, in the ruins of the county court room, adjacent 
to the late library rooms of the Institute. 

" Smoke still rose from the ruins of the city, and the delibera- 
tions of the meeting were more than once interrupted by the fall- 
ing of crumbling portions of the masonry of the court room. The 
meeting was large and the interest profound. Upon full and 
earnest discussion it was determined forthwith to relay the foun- 
dations of the library, and as speedily as practicable to re- 
store the Institute to the degree of usefulness it had attained 
before the tire. To that end, an assessment for the current year, 
amounting to one-fourth of the par value of the stock of the 
shareholders, was levied; a liberal provision for the admission 
of ftew members was adopted, and its affairs were committed to 
the charge of a board of managers, selected from among the most 
eminent members of the profession." 

Having been instrumental in founding th i institute originally, 
it was thought best that I should try my hand at it again, and I 
was accordingly elected President, and set about the task of re- 
founding it. Rooms were, after a considerable delay, procured 
in the new structure, erected by the city at the corner of Adams 
and LaSalle streets, where it has remained ever since. The Bar 
took a great interest in restoring the library, and to-day it has 
about 13,000 volumes. 

It has had for its Presidents, Judge John M. Wilson, Judge 
"Walter B. Scates, Judge George Manierre, Hon.VanH. Higgins, 
Elliott Anthony, Judge W. K. McAllister, Hon. Wm. H. King, 
Hon. James P. Root, John M. Ron n tree, John N. Jewett, 
Charles W. Reed, George Payson, Lambert Tree, Sidney Smith, 
Julius Rosenthal, Robert Hervey and George Gardner. 

Julius Rosenthal was for years the librarian, and to him the 
institute is greatly indebted for the judicious care exercised by 
him in the purchasing and procuring of books, and the members 
of the Institute, in order to show their appreciation of his ser- 
vices, did, at the annual election in 1879, vote him an honorary 
member for life. 

Among those who took a prominent part in the organization 
of the Institute were Sanford B.Perry, George Manierre, James 
P. Root, William H. King, John A. Thompson and Ira Scott. 

The number of members of the Institute at the present time 
is 406. 



The Philosophical Society of Chicago. 755 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF CHICAGO. 

When the burned-out city had rebuilt most of its former cen- 
ters, and the heart of the city again began to be a place of resort for 
men and women of common aims and feelings, there arose a new 
society, The Philosophical Society. The suggestion of it came 
from Dr. Hiram TV". Thomas, then pastor of the first Methodist 
Episcopal Church, whose place of meetiDg is at the corner of 
Clark and Washington Streets. He thought it desirable to draw 
together men and women of thoughtful minds and earnest char- 
acter, who were interested in the discussion of topics of philos- 
ophy ,social science, natural science, in its broader aspects, history, 
as showing the lights of human experience, and of moral philos- 
ophy; people who loved truth so much as to feel free in discus- 
sion, and tolerant of the differing sentiments and views of each 
other, and of the world at large. 

Dr. Thomas soon drew into council with himself, a few of like 
spirit, and a preliminary meeting was held Sept. 8, 1873, at 
which a committee on organization w^as appointed, consisting of 
Messrs. Dr. H. TV. Thomas. A. B. Keith, Dr. T. A. Bland, E. F. 
Abbott, and T. B. Taylor. The next meeting was held Sept 16th, 
and the final organization was effected Oct. 11th, in the rooms of 
the First M. E. Church; and there the Society held its meetings 
for a while. The course of lectures was begun, even before the 
constitution was adopted, with a lecture by Col. A. ~R. Waterman, 
Sept. 23, on the influence of Modern Philanthrophy upon Law. 
At the same time, the plan was adopted of criticising each lecture, 
members of the society offering comments im brief speeches. 

. From the first the Society insisted upon perfect freedom of ut- 
terance in its lectures and discussions. Its constitution was the 
simplest possible form of organization, the preamble to which 
was as follows : 

" Being profoundly impressed with the unity of Truth in its 
origin, and of its infinite value to man, and being equally im- 
pressed with the blinding effects upon the human mind of Ignor- 
ance, Prejudice and Superstition, it has seemed desirable to us 
(believing the time for such a movement has arrived), to seek the 
organization of a society, whose sole motto shall be 'What is 
Truth?" Whose members, regardless of past associations, pre- 
conceived opinions or expressed convictions, shall, in a spirit of 
simplicity and candor, associate for the investigation of questions 
that are peculiar to our time, pertaining to human welfare" 



756 The Philosophical Society of Chicago. 

Upon this basis of common agreement the Society seeks to bring 
together earnest, thinking men and women, to listen to and to 
share in discussions of important topics: to develop clear views 
wise thoughts, and just practice: to foster a love of Philosophy, 
and a taste for the discussion of principles. A Society with such 
purposes must necessarily include persons holding a great variety 
of views. It has enrolled in its ranks at the same time material- 
ists and idealists in philosophy; catholics, orthodox, heterodox 
and atheists in religion; and scientists of opposing theoretical 
views. No one should impute to the society any opinion or set 
of opinions because of doctrines put forth in its lectures or by 
its members individually, or because of questions suggested for 
discussion: it is its doctrine that the surest way to destroy error 
and to make truth illustrious, is to bring them bothalike into the 
light of reason and the fire of discussion. Nowhere can a lec- 
turer find a freer platform, nor greater surety of various, dis- 
criminating, and candid criticism. 

The principal exercises are lectures every Saturday evening, 
from the first of October in each year to the end of the ensuing 
April. At the close of each lecture, a discussion of it is opened 
by one or more of the members of the Society previously ap- 
pointed by the president: these are followed by such other mem- 
bers as see fit to join in the discussion; but no member is al- 
lowed more than five minutes in which to discuss the lecture, 
except the appointee of the chair, who is allowed ten minutes: 
the lecturer himself closes the discussion. In 'these discussions, 
adverse and conflicting views are freely and frankly presented. 
An Executive Committee of five persons has charge of the exer- 
cises, and is responsible for the lectures which are delivered be- 
fore the Society. Only such persons are invited to lecture by 
the committee as are believed competent to treat topics with 
philosophical candor, learning, and completeness. 

The first president was Pev. Joseph Haven, D. D., noted for 
his philosophical learning, his candid and tolerant spirit, and 
his firm adherence to the orthodox creed of his church. He died 
just at the close of the first year. Next, Dr. Hiram W. Thomas 
presided for a year. The third and fourth years Hon. Henry 
Booth, Circuit Judge, was president; he was followed, in the 
fifth year, by Gen. N. B. Buford; Dr. Samuel "Willard, Professor 
of History, was the president of the sixth year; Dr. Edmund 
Andrews, the eminent surgeon, followed. In the current year, 
1880- J 81,' Prof. Eodney Welch, one of the editorial staff of the 
Chicago Times, presides. The membership of the Society was in 
its first year near 300; but for several years following it varied 
from 100 to 150; now it is increasing its numbers again. But 



Wolf's Point. 757 

it does not seek popularity so much as usefulness in its own line 
In the first seven years of its existence, it held 215 meetings, at 
which 207 lectures were delivered, by 124 different lecturers. 
Though the society has met with opposition, chiefly from those who 
fear that truth will not prevail in the arena of free discussion, it 
has maintained a high reputation among thinking people, and has 
made itself felt as one of the educating influences of Chicago. 

Samuel Willabd. 



WOLF'S POINT. 

Two years after the rebuilding of Fort Dearborn, Gurdon S. 
Hubbard, though a boy in his teens, came to Chicago in the em- 
ploy of the American Fur Company, which was in 1818. He is 
still an active citizen among us, well known, not only to the 
people of Chicago, but his Historical records and "early experi- 
ences have been eagerly sought after by the leading book-makers 
of the East, also, as well as of the West, and have given him a 
deserved reputation as one of the few remaining, living witnesses 
of the process by which a savage wilderness has been metamor- 
phosed into a densely populated State. A few years after he 
came to Chicago a little cluster of houses sprung up at the Fork 
of the river, and not without a spirit of rivalry to outstrip the 
neighboring little nucleus for a village nearly a mile distant, 
under the guns of Fort Dearborn. This feeling was still mani- 
fest as late as 1833, and shared in by those who bad settled at 
this spot, which was then known by the name of Wolf's Point. 
All this is fresh to the memory of Mr. Hubbard, because he saw 
it in his youthful days, and his letter is here inserted to give the 
public the benefit of his views from his own hand: 

Chicago, October 13, 1880. 
Ruftts Blanchaed: 

My Dear Sir — Your favor of 11th is at hand, and I most 
cheerfully give you what information I possess on the subject 
matter of your note. 

Prior to 1800 the north branch of the Chicago river was called 
by the Indian traders and voyagers "River Guarie," and the 
south branch "Portage River." On the west side of the north 
branch a man by the name of Guarie had a trading-house, situa- 
ted on the bank of the river about where Fulton street now is. 
This house was enclosed by pickets. He located there prior to 
1778. This tradition I received from Messrs. Antoine Deschamps 
and Antoine Beson, who, from about 1778, had passed from Lake 



758 Wolf's Point. 

Michigan to the Illinois river yearly; they were old men when' I 
first knew them in 1818. This tradition was corroborated by 
other old voyagers. The evidences of this trading-house were 
pointed out to me by Mr. Deschamps; the corn hills adjoining 
were distinctly traceable, though grown over with grass. 

I am of opinion that these branches retained their names un- 
til about the time of the location of the first Fort Dearborn, and 
were afterwards known as the north and south branches. 

My impression is that Elijah "Wentworth opened his tavern on 
the West Side, near the present west Kinzie street, in 1830, at 
what was then called the Forks. About this date Samuel Miller 
bought a small log cabin on the opposite side of the river from 
Wentworth's, and south of the present Kinzie street bridge, to 
which he added a two-story log building, finishing the outside 
with split clapboards. These two public houses were the first 
Chicago could boast of. Miller by his influence and enterprise, 
erected a bridge built wholly of logs, across the north branch, 
just north of his tavern. He and "Wentworth being competitors 
for public favor, the Forks House getting the most patronage, 
Jos. and Hobert Kinzie built stores there, and here resorted 
some of the officers of the Fort daily for social intercourse and 
"drinks" at Wentworth's bar. Wolves were in those days quite 
numerous; one had the audacity to enter in the day time Went- 
worth's meat house, and was by him killed. His house had for a 
sign a tall sapling topped off just above a prominent branch; it 
extended some distance above the top of the roof, and was a con- 
spicuous notice, to be seen from the prairie and surroundings, 
that "here was food for man and beast;" it lacked however some- 
thing to hang to the branch projection, to give it character; how 
to obtain a proper emblem, puzzled the good landlord, as there 
was no carpenter or paint shop, or citizen artist; a happy 
thought struck him, that Lieutenant Allen might condescend to 
supply the deficiency, if properly approached; this was effected 
through a mutual friend. The boards of a dry-goods box were ob- 
tained, from which was put in shape, under the superintendence 
of Lieut. James Allen, a well proportioned sign, the Indian 
Agency Blacksmith putting to it hinges, when Lieut. Allen took it 
in hand again, producing and presenting to Wentworth the 
picture of the slethy wolf, which was to serve not only an attract- 
ive painting, but a memorial of the landlord's valor in the kill- 
ing alone and unaided, of a ferocious wolf. Officers and citizens 
received invitations to be present at the hanging of the sign; 
the day and hour arriving, found assembled a majority of the 
people; the sign was brought forth, duly veiled with a blanket, 
was attached to the branch of the pole, the veil removed, and it 



- x 



*Z 







fk 



-%■■ 






Zee's Place. 759 

swung gracefully, and was greeted with hurrahs from those pres- 
ent; in turn something else greeted the hoarse throats of friends. 
Thus was produced and baptised the name of "Wolf Point." 

Besides Wolf Point was a place called Hard Scrabble, of early 
historic interest. 

Mrs. Jno. H. Kinzie, in her book, "Wan-bun," correctly 
describes the location as " Lee's Place." Mack & Conant, exten- 
sive merchants at Detroit, in the Indian trade, became the 
owners of this property about the year 1816. They sent'Mr. John 
Craft with a large supply of Indian goods to take possession of it, 
and establish a branch of their house there, the principal "object 
being to sell goods to such traders as they could, residing through- 
out this country, without interfering with the interest of those 
traders who purchased goods from him. 

Mr. Craft repaired the dilapidated building, adding thereto, 
and erecting others necessary for the convenience of business. 
He, I think, named it "Hard Scrabble;" whether he or. some one 
else, it bore that name in 1818. 

At the organization of the American Fur Company, 1S16, Mr. 
Astor's plan was to control the entire trade by absorbing other 
companies doing an Indian business. He succeeded in buying out 
the Southwest Company, whose headquarters were at Mackinaw, 
but failed in his efforts to buy out Mack & Conant. 

Mr. James Abbott, however, their agent at Detroit, succeeded 
in buying them out in 1820 or '21, and they withdrew from the 
Indian trade, transferring their Indian goods, posts and good will 
to the American Fur, who constituted Mr. Craft their agent 
here, he removing his quarters from "Hard Scrabble "to the 
company's warehouse, located north of, and adjoining, the mili- 
tary burying ground. They enlarged it and built a log ware- 
house, besides; J. B. Beaubien, who had previously occupied it, 
removing to the "Factor House," adjoining Fort Dearborn. 
Craft died in the fall of 1826, and Mr. John Kinzie succeeded 
him. Wm. W. Wallace (who was one of Astor's men on his ex- 
pedition to Columbia River) took possession of Hard Scrabble 
after Mr. Craft had left the place, and died there during the 
winter of 1827-8. From that time till the land title passed from 
the government, it was occupied by several families, temporarily, 
among whom were the Law T ton's, for a short time, and James 
Galloway, the father of Mrs. Archibald Clyborne. 

Yours Truly, G. S. Hubbard. 



760 The Chicago Harbor and Elver Convention, 



THE CHICAGO HARBOR AND RIVER CONVENTION. 

This convention was the outgrowth of President Polk's veto of 
the bill making appropriations for the improvement of rivers, and 
the construction of harbors, at the first session of Congress under 
his administration, with the intimation from him that no such 
appropriations would receive his sanction whilst President. 
Popular meetings were held during the vacation of Congress in 
different localities, with reference to the matter for the purpose 
of forming some concert of action. On his way to the next ses- 
sion of Congress, Daniel Webster made at Philadelphia his cel- 
ebrated speech of Dec. 2d, 1846, upon this subject, which may 
be found in the published volumes of his speeches. Upon the 
assembling of Congress, there were very frequent consultations of 
the members favorable to the vetoed bill, in defense not only of 
their own views, but to the expressions of the numerous meet- 
ings that had been held in vacation. The conclusion of those 
consultations was that a mass convention should be held at 
Chicago, without distinction of party, at such a time as its citi- 
zens, after mature deliberation, should consider the most oppor- 
tune. Hon. John Wentworth* was not only the Congressman 
from the Chicago district, but was a member of the Committee 
of Commerce which had reported the vetoed bill. Congress 
adjourned upon the 3d of March, 1847; and, upon Mr. Went- 
w r orth's return, he made known to the citizens of Chicago the 
sentiments of the members of Congress opposed to the doc- 
trines of President Polk's veto. A public meeting was called, 
a day named for the convention, and a committee of five ap- 
pointed to draft an address to the people of the United 
States, three of whom had voted for President Polk's elec- 
tion. Of this committee, with the exception of Judge George 
Manierre, all are now living in Chicago. The address was 

* John Wentworth, to whom allusion has heretofore been made, was the first 
member of Congress ever elected from Chicago, or north of Spring-field, and has 
served as such twelve years, his first election being- in 1843. He was elected 
Mayor in 1857 and in 1861, and has served the public in various other capaci- 
ties; and was a Director in the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad Company at 
the time of its consolidation with the Northwestern. He was born at Sandwich, 
N. H., March 5th, 1815, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1836, and came to 
Chicago October 25th of that year. He immediately entered the law office of 
Henry Moore, completed his law studies at Harvard University, and was admit- 
ted to the Chicago Bar in 1841. He was present at the first meeting called in 
the winter of 1836-7 to consider the propriety of Chicago becoming an incorpo- 
rated city, and voted at the first municipal election. Whilst pursuing his legal 
studies he wrote occasional articles for the Chicago Democrat, and eventually 
b ecame its sole proprietor. 



The Chicago Haroor and River Convention. 761 

written by Hon. John "Wentworth, and may be found in full 
in Yol. II, of "Wheeler's Biographical and Political History of 
Congress, as well as a full history of the convention itself, and a 
very elaborate review of the proceedings of Congress upon the 
subject of Harbor and Kiver improvements from the origin of 
our government. 

This was the first national convention ever held in Chicago, 
and the number and character of those who attended it did so 
much towards bringing: to light the natural advantages of Chi- 
cago, that an extract from the address of the Chicago committee is 
herewith inserted to give the points at issue before the convention. 

"The high prices of freight, taken in connection with the loss of life and prop- 
erty upon the Western waters last season, caused several public meeting's to he 
held in various sections of the country, for the purpose of devising- the best 
means of remedying those and other evils, of which the great mass of the people 
interested in commerce were complaining. At all these meetings the propriety 
of holding a convention at some convenient point was discussed and universally 
concurred in. 

' ' In consequence of Chicago having been generally named as the proper point, 
its citizens called a meeting, named the fifth of July a.s the appropriate time, and 
chose the undersigned a committee to draft an address setting forth the objects 
of the convention. 

• "The movers in this matter have been, from the first, like the undersigned, of 
entirely different politics, and, so far from there being even in the remotest 
degree any political design in the contemplated convention, one of the chief ob- 
jects of it is to call together for a common object the men of all parties, and to 
convince the people everywhere that the improvements desired are not now, never 
have been and never should be, connected with "party politics," in the ordinary 
use of that term. Such a connection would in the minds of all interested have a 
very deleterious tendency. It can not be denied that there is a predisposition 
among all politicians to support the measures of a chief magistrate of their own 
party, and hence we have seen Western representatives, originally supporting 
harbor and river improvements, and elected upon express pledges to do so, finally 
vote to support a veto of bills providing for that purpose, and assigning as a 
reason, therefor, that it was their duty to sustain an executive of their own 
selection, even though it be in express opposition to the wishes and interests of 
then constituents. Repeated instances of this kind must eventually give this 
question somewhat of a political cast, which the undersigned and all who co- 
operate with them would seriously regret. ***** 
" This convention is designed to be one of free discussion, and it is hoped 
that the opponents as well as the friends of lake and river improvements, will 
attend, and more especially since it is generally believed that they have only to 
see for themselves in order to be convinced that these demands coming from all 
our great waters are founded in justice. 

"Although the construction of harbors and the improvement of rivers, will 
be the prominent subject before the convention, yet, whatever matters appertain 
to the prosperity of the West and to the development of its resources, will come 
properly before it, and all plans and suggestions will be freely entertained. The 
committee invite a general attendance from all sections of the Union, and tender, 
in behalf of then fellow citizens the hospitalities of the city of Chicago to such 
as impelled by a common interest see fit to honor them by their presence on the 
occasion. John Wextworth, ~\ 

George Maxierre, | 

J. Young Scammon, ^Committee. 

I. N. Arnold, 

Grant Goodrich, 



'62 Last Chicago Resident Soldier of Fort Dearborn. 



THE LAST CHICAGO RESIDENT SOLDIER OF FT. DEARBORN. 

Luther Nichols was born in Gilbertsville, Otsego County, New 
York, in 1805, enlisted in the United States service in 1828, 
and came to Chicago with his wife and one child (as a soldier) 
in the Second United States Infantry, under the immediate 
charge of Major Whistler. The company consisted of about 
hfty soldiers. On their arrival they found Fort Dearborn 
crowded with refugees from the adjoining country, who had fled 
to the place for refuge from Black Hawk's Indians. These were 
ordered to leave at once, and obeyed the summons with reluctance, 
for their fears were not yet allayed from the danger of Indian 
scalping parties. A few days after their arrival General Scott 
came and brought the cholera. Major Whistler then left the 
quarters of the fort and built barracks outside for his men, at 
the foot of the present site of Madison street. Here they re- 
mained during the prevalence of cholera and assisted in burying 
the dead of Scott's army. Soon after Gen. Scott's arrival, several 
of the dead bodies of such soldiers as died on the passage, were 
driven by the winds ashore on the beach south of Chicago. Mr. 
Nichols with six of the company were ordered to go and bury 
them. It was a very unwelcome task. They were buried in the 
sand where they laid, about three feet deep, from which place 
they have never since been resurrected. Only two of Major 
Whistler's command died, both of whom were men who often 
drank liquor. Mr. Nichols accompanied Gen. Scott to Rock 
Island, witnessed his treaty with the Indians, at which time much 
hilarity prevailed among the soldiers, such as drinking and 



Mr. Davenport, for whom the city was named, then kept a 
grocery and drinking saloon half a mile from Ft. Armstrong, on 
Rock Island, and here officers and soldiers made themselves 
merry on whisky which was said to be a very good brand. 

Mr. Nichols served the remainder of his term as a soldier at 
Chicago, as one of the garrison at Fort Dearborn, and was hon- 
orably discharged in the latter part of 1833, and has ever since 
been a citizen of Chicago, living now (1881) at 106 Peoria streetj 
in good health. 

BILLY CALDWELL 

Says Hon. John Wentworth: Billy Caldwell owed allegiance 
to tliree distinct nations at one and the same time. He was 
captain of the Indian department of Great Britain in 1816, and 
never renounced the British allegiance. He was justice of the 



Arrival of First Vessel Through Chicago Elver. 763 

peace in Chicago, in 1826; and he was Indian chief all this 
time, and died a British American Indian subject. 

The following obituary notice of his death was published in 
the Chicago Tribune of October 28, 1841 : 

Died, at Council Bluffs, on the 28th of September last, (1841,) Saugaunash, 
(Billy Caldwell,) the principal chief of the united nations of Ottawa, Chippewa, 
and ^Pottawatomie Indians, in the 60th year of his age. He was well and favor- 
ably known to the old residents of Chicago, and the northern frontier of Il- 
linois, as an old and efficient friend during the Sac and Fox trouble of 1832. 
Among those of the whites who knew him well, he was esteemed an honorable, 
high-minded, intelligent gentleman;, generous to a fault, but attentively de- 
voted to the interest and welfare of his people, who had unanimously called him 
to the> chieftainship of their nation. 



[From the Chicago Democrat of July 16th, 1834.] 

ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST VESSEL THROUGH THE OPENING AT THE 
MOUTH OF THE CHICAGO RIVER. 

" Our citizens were not a little delighted on Saturday morning 
last by a sight as novel as it was beautiful. About nine o'clock 
their attention was arrested by the appearance of the splendid 
schooner Illinois, as she came gliding up the river into the heart 
of the town under full sail. The Illinois is anew vessel of nearly 
one hundred tons, launched this spring, at Sackett's Harbor, 
1ST. Y., is a perfect model of a schooner, and is commanded by 
Captain Pickering, who is one of the most enterprising and per- 
severing seamen that navigates the lakes. Her topmast was 
covered with streamers, and her canvass was all spread to invite 
the gentle breeze. The banks of the river were crowded with a 
delighted crowd, and as she reached the wharf of Messrs. New- 
berry and Dole, where she stopped, she was hailed with loud and 
repeated cheers. Her decks were immediately crowded by the 
citizens, all anxious to greet her gallant commander with a warm 
and hearty welcome. The draw-bridge was soon raised, and she 
passed on to the upper end of the town, and came to Ingersoll's 
wharf in front of the Weston Stage House. On her passage up 
the river more than two hundred of our citizens were on board. 
AVe hope we shall often greet Captain Pickering and his brethren 
of the lakes in the harbor of Chicago. 

'* On Monday night the schooner Philip, Captain Hone, from 
Lake Erie, also entered the river, and was engaged yesterday in 
discharging her cargo at the wharf of Messrs. Newberry and 
Dole." 

The vessel, you will see, arrived on Saturday, previous to the 
issue of the paper containing the notice, which date would be on 
the 12th of July. The Philip came in Monday the 12th of July. 



764 



Mayors of Chicago. — Valedictory. 



LIST OF MAYORS OF CHICAGO. 



Wm. B. Ogden, elected May 2, 1837 


Isaac L. Milliken, elected Mar. 13, 1854 


Buckner S. Morris, " 


Mar. 6, 1838 


LeviD. Boone, " 


" 8, 1855 


Benj.W. Raymond, " 


" 5,1839 


Thomas Dyer, " 


" 10, 1856 


Alexander Lloyd, " 


" 3,1840 


John Wentworth, " 


" 3, 1857 


Francis C. Sherman, " 


" 5, 1841 


John C. Haines, " 


" 2, 1858 


Benj.W. Raymond," 


" 7, 1842 


u u it it 


" 1, 1859 


Augustus Garrett, " 


" 7, 1843 


John Wentworth, " 


" 6, 1860 


A. S, Sherman, " 


" 7, 1844 


Julian S. Rumsey, " 


April 16, 1861 


Augustus Garrett, " 


" 5, 1845 


Francis C. Sherman," 


" 15, 1862 


John P. Chapin, " 


" 3, 1846 


" " " " 


" 21, 1863 


James Curtis, " 


" 2, 1847 


John B. Rice, " 


" 18, 1865 


Jas. H. Woodworth, " 


" 7, 1848 


(< it it a 


" 16, 1867 


u it a a 


" 6, 1849 


Roswell B. Mason, " 


Nov. 2, 1869 


James Curtis, " 


" 6, 1850 


Joseph Medill, " 


" 7, 1871 


Walter S. Gurnee, " 


" 4, 1851 


Harvey D. Col via, " 


" 4, 1873 


" " " " 


" 2, 1852 


Monroe Heath, " 


July 12, 1876 


Charles M. Gray, " 

m 


" 14, 1853 


Carter H. Harrison, " 


April 1, 1879 



VALEDICTORY. 

Far different is the early history of the Northwest from that of New England, 
or the Virginia colonies. The people of both came from the same origin, ex- 
cept the French, who remained in the country; but when the Anglo-Americans 
came to the West, their minds were unclouded by the servitude of caste, either 
in religious or political affairs, for time had wrought great changes between the 
days of the settlement of Jamestown by gentlemen, and Plymouth by unctious 
Puritans, and the days of William Heniy Harrison, when Western pioneering 
became a mania throughout the East. Then came a rush of adventurers to the 
new field of labor. Not regretful fugitives from persecution, but bold, aggres- 
sive and ambitious fortune-seekers, who could tolerate Jews, especially if they 
would loan them money, or Quakers, if they would sell them "honest goods, 1 ' 
as they are wont to do. They could fellowship any one who would do some- 
thing to help subdue the wilds of the West, and build progressive institutions 
therein: and here grew into being from cosmopolitan elements, The West as 
It Is : the wealthiest country in the world in creature comforts if not in gold. 
Its adult population have largely witnessed its growth, and who of them can 
say they have not felt then- minds enlarge by Western experience. 

Readers, to this conviction I confess. To you I therefore say, that in writing 
the foregoing pages, I have imagined myself familiarly conversing with my 
peers, who were in sympathy with me and knew how to accept my words, feeble 
as words are to measure the grandeur of the West historically. 



Chicago, 111., January, 1881. 



THE AUTHOR, 



INDEX 



PAGE. 

Abercrombie, Gen 80 

Appointed to Command the English 

Forces in America 84 

Defeated at Ticonderoga 85 

Academy of Sciences 583 

Acadia 75 

Acadians Removed 76 

Alouez 11 

American Fur Co 325,406 

Its Branch at Chicago 327 

American Names, Grammar of 588 

Amherst, Maj.Gen 84 

Appointed to Command of the English 

Forces .in America 90 

Anti-Slavery Agitation 655 

Bad Axe. Battle of 387 

Baptist Denomination 603 

Baugis 42 

Beaujeu . 43 

Beaubiens, The 407 

Bench, The. of Chicago 481 

Bennett Medical College 532 

Black Hawk 285, 362, 363, 365, 368, 378, 390 

Black Partridge 265, 270, 418 

Bloody Run, Battle of. 116 

Bouquet, Gen 86 

His Expedition to the Muskingum 125 

Board of Trade 462 

Boscawan, Admiral 84 

Braddock, Gen., Lands in Virginia 73 

His Defeat 75 

Bradstreet Gen. Takes Fort Frontenac. 86 

Relieves Detroit 123 

Bridges 513 

Brock, Gen. Isaac 255 

Buckongahelas 152 

Bushv Run, Battle of 121 

Cahokia Settled 62 

Caldwell, Billy 271. 308. 310.763 

Calumet Club '. 763 

Campbell, Maj 112 

Campus Martius 186 

Canada. Its Limits Extended 148 

Captives, Rendition of. 127 

Carpenter, Philo, his Arrival at Chicago. 392 

Cass, Gen. Lewis 255 

Cavelier 44, 48, 51, 53 

Catholic Church 717 

Census of Chicago 654, 733 

Cession of the;Northwest uvthe U. S 176 

Champlain, Samuel D .".... 11 

Chicago, Adjacent Settlements to 357 

Chartered as a Village 396 

Chartered as a City 424 

Description of in 1833 393 

Description of in 1834 419 

Early Voting at 355 

Enlargement by Wards 437 

First Vessel in its River 763 

French Fort built at 54 

Grade of its Streets 716 



page. 

Harbor Improvement of. 540 

Hut built at 216 

Massacre at 263 

Locality of Massacre at 750 

Missionary Station at.. 55 

Its First Tax Payers 352 

Name first on School Atlases 338 

Pioneer Citizens of 356 

Seal of 422 

Surveyed pnd Platted 345 

Chicago Fire 682 

Chicago, ihe Indian Chief. 146 

Chicago Theological Semina>v 615 

Childs, E., his Narrative of 1821 336 

Cholera, (The) at Chicago 377 

Clark, John K'....". 388 

Clark's Conquest of Vincennes 155 

Cleaveland. Moses 213 

Cleveland Settled 215 

Clybourn, Archibald 225 

Arrives at Chicago 343 

Clybourn Familv. 225 

Clybourn, Mrs. Archibald 344 

Congregat'al Denomination of Chicago... 618 

Continental Congress , 151 

Convention at Albany 65 

Convention of I860.... 572 

Convention of 1861 579 

Convention of 1868 > 580 

Convention of 1880 580 

Corbin, Mrs., her death 267 

Courts Established in the Northwest 181 

Crawford's Expedition to Sandusky 169 

His Death by Fire 171 

Cresap 149 

Croghan. George 132 

Starts for the Illinois Country.... 133 

His Journal 141 

Crown Point 65 

Dalzell, Capt 115 

Dearborn Observatory 480 

Decrees of Berlin 240 

Repealed 243 

Denonville 42 

Detroit 56 

Settled 59 

Attacked by the Foxes , 61 

Beseigedby Pontiac 109 

Hull's Surrender at 256 

Dixon's Ferry 358 

Dieskau, Baron, Marches against John- 
son 77 

Is Defeated 88 

Dinwiddie, Gov 67, 72 

Dulhut 32 

Duhant Shoots La Salle 4/ 

His Death 50 

Dunmore, Lord 149 

Earthquake of 1811 238 

Elliott, George 151 

Embargo Act , 241 



(765) 



766 



Index. 



PAGE. 

English on the Upper Lakes 58 

English Posts on the Manmee Captured. 66 

English Colonies 64 

England Declares War Against France... 81 

English Evacuate Western Posts. 212 

English Orders 241 

Engagee, the 228, 316 

Episcopal Denomination of Chicago 623 

Erring Woman's Refuge 551 

Factory System '. 332 

Five Nations 11 

Fire Department of Chicago 546 

Flood of 1849 565 

Financial History of 111. and Chicago.... 701 
France Declares War Against England... 81 

Fort Apple River 383 

Fort Catarauqui 24 

Fort Creve-Cseur 32 

Despoiled 35 

Fort Chartres 62, 131 

Fort Beggs 373 

Fort Dearborn, Commissioners S sent to 

Locate It 220 

Built 221 

Evacuated 263 

Re-built 317 

Official Becordof 439 

Last Relics of 441 

Its Last Living Soldier 762 

Fort Duquesne 73 

Fort Greenville 200 

Treaty at in 1795 206 

Fort Hamilton 187 

Fort Harrison 278 

Fort Jefferson 187 

Fort Knox ; 186 

Fort Le Bceuf. 67 

Fort Laurens ' 165 

Fort Madison 238 

Fort Meigs Built on the Maumee 296 

Besieged bv the British 297 

English Retreat trom 299 

Fort Mcintosh 164 

Fort Miamis ■. 35 

Fort Necessity, siege of 71 

Fort Niagara taken by the English 191 

Fort Payne 374 

Fort Pitt 118 

Relieved by Gen. Bouquet 121 

FortPresque Isle 67 

Fort Steuben 186 

Fort Stephenson 301 

Fort St. Louis 41 

Fort Washington 179 

Fort Wayne Built 206 

Besieged 278 

Relieved 271 

Fort William Henry, Slaughter at 83 

Franklin, Benj 74 

His Controversy; withJGov. Denny 70 

Anecdote of 18S 

Forbes, Gen.. 84 

Takes Fort DuQuesne 89 

Foxes. The 60 

Foundlings Home 4S5 

Frontenac 23 

Restored to the Governorship of Cana- 
da 58 

Gag.\ Gen., at Braddock's Defeat 75 

Galloway, James 340 

Gates, Capt., at Braddock's Defeat 74 

(ienet 198 

Girly, Simon 151 

Gist. Christopher 66 

Gladwin, Gen 108 

Grade of Chicago Streets... 716 

Goo i Samaritan Society 600 



PAGK. 

Grant, Maj 8s 

Griffin, The 26 

Greenville, Treaty at 206 

Second Treaty at 313 

Ghent, Negotiations at 311 

Hahneman Medical College 528 

Hall, Benjamin 225 

Hall, David 225 

Half, King 67 

Harbor and River Convention 506, 760 

Half Orphan Asylum , 530 

Harrison, Wm. Henry, Governor of Indi- 
ana Territory 218 

His Council with Tecumseh 234 

Fights the Battle of Tippecanoe 230 

Appointedto Command the Northwest- 
ern Army 292 

Defends Fort Meigs 297 

Invades Canada 306 

Fights the Battle of the Thames 307 

Heald.Capt 24S 

Evacuates Fort Dearborn 262 

Heckwelder, John 163 

Helm. Lieut 273 

Helm, Mrs 264 

Hennepin Sent to Upper Mississippi 2N 

In Captivity 29 

Returns to Canada 32 

Henry, Alexander 110 

Hiens b'o 

Historical Society 457 

Homoeopathic College, Chicago 524 

Holt. Mrs., at the Chicago Massacre 267 

Hopkins, Gen., his Expedition to Illinois 282 

Horse R. Roads 568 

Hubbard, Gurdon s., 3_<s 

Hudson Bay Co., The 324 

Hudson River Explored 9 

Huron Lake Discovered 9 

Hull, Gen 245 

Reaches Detroit 247 

Surrenders Detroit 256 

Iberville enters the Mississippi 54 

Illinois Staats Zeitung 511 

Illinois Tribes first Mentioned 11 

Their Principal Villages 15 

Illinois Territory Organized 237 

Illinois, State of, Admitted into 1 the 

Union 310 

Illinois and Michigan Canal Located 351 

Its History 445 

Imports and Exports of Chicago 727 

Indian Creek, Massacre at 371 

Indian Houses 330 

Indian Names, their Original and Deri- 
vation 589 

Indiana Territory Organized 218 

Its Census in 1810 232 

Inter Ocean. The, of Chicago 478 

Iroquois, The 58 

Jay, John 205 

His Treaty of 1704 240 

Jews of Chicago 62S 

Johnson, Gen 73 

Defeats the French at the Head of Lake 

George 78 

Takes Fort Niagara 91 

Joliet 12 

With Marquette at Chicago in 1673 '. 16 

Jontcl 43 

Journal, The, of Chicago. 473 

Kaskaskia Settled 62 

Kellogg's Grove, Battle of 381 

Kinzie, James 226 

Kinzie. John, his first Marriage 224 

His second Marriage.... 225 

His arrival at Chicago 226 



Index. 



767 



PAGE. 

Sent as War Prisoner with his Family 

to Detroit 272 

Returns to Chicago 318 

His Death 354 

Kinzie, John H 249 

Kinzies, The 408 

La Bane 41 

La Mai at Chicago 216 

Land Titles 698 

Latrobe, Charles G., his Description of 

Indian Treaty at Chicago 399 

La Salle builds a Fort at Niagara 25 

Reaches the St. Joseph 26 

Builds Fort Creeve-Coeur 27 

Returns to Canada 32 

Reaches the mouth of the Mississippi... 39 

Reaches Texas. 43 

Is Assassinated 47 

His Death Revenged 50 

Law Institute of Chicago 751 

Lead Trade 129 

Leaden Plates Buried G5 

Lee's Place, Massacree at 250 

Legal News 472 

Lee's Place described 759 

Library, Public 454 

Little Turtle "185 

Defeats St. Clair : 188 

His Defeat 202 

At Philadelphia 211 

His Death 212 

Louisa St. Clair 186 

Logan 149 

His Speech 150 

Logstown 65 

Loudon, Lord 79 

Louisburgh Destroyed 84 

Louisiana 49 

Purchased by the United States 219 

Loramies' Store 55 

Mayors of Chicago 764 

Marietta Settled 175 

Marquette Discovers the Mississippi 12 

Winters at Chicago 17 

Starts for Canada 18 

Dies on the \\ ay 18 

His Remains Removed to St. Ignace.... 18 

Recovery of his Bones 22 

His Journal 19 

Maumee, English Post on 65 

Maumee Rap.ds occupied.the Americans 293 

Maumee Rapids. English Fort, at 200 

McKee, David 359 

McKinzie, Elizabeth 223 

McKinzie, Margaret 223 

Medical College, Chicago 534 

Michilimackinac Settled 61 

Massacre at 110 

Taken by the English 248 

Methodism, Early in Chicago 645 

Mississippi River, First Tidings of 10 

Discovered 12 

Monckton, Gen 73 

Invades Acadia 65 

Montcalm, Gen., takes Command of the 

French Forces in America 80 

Takes Oswego 81 

Takes Fort William Henry 82 

Death of. 96 

Moravian Missions : 163 

Murray, Robt. N 389 

New Orleans 129 

Naperville 272 

New France, its Limits 64 

NeueFreie Presse 681 

News, the Daily of Chicago 506 

Newspaper, first at Chicago 409 



vagv. 

New Jerusalem Church of Chicago 635 

Nika 32 

His Death 46 

Northern Illinois, its cession bv the In- 
dian- 403 

Ohio Company 66 

Ohio River, Americans Commence a 

Fort at 70 

Old Ladies' Home 4CX 

Old Settlers, List of. 424 

Oliver, Capt. William, takes a Message to 

Fort Meiers 298 

Ojibewa Girl 108 

Ouilmette 127 

Peace Council with Little Turtle 189 

Peace with England 172 

Payne, Rev. Adam c8 ' 

His Death „3S! 

Pecatonica, Battle of 385 

Perry's Victory 304 

Peoria as a French Village. 23S 

Attacked by Americans 284 

Perrot, Nicholas 11 

Philosophical Society of Chicago 755 

Pictured Rocks 13 

Pitt, Premier of England 82 

Point Pleasant, Battle of. 149 

Pontiac 100 

His Conspiracy 106 

His Stratagem to take the Fort at De- 
troit 10S 

His Victory over Capt. Dalzell 116 

Makes Peace 145 

Is Assassinated 146 

Post Christian Frederic 87 

Post Office at Chicago 443 

Pottawatomies 249 

Removed from Chicago 401 

Prairie du Chien 281 

Taken by the Br'tish 309 

Presbyterian Churches 611 

Prideaux, Gen., Attacks Fort Niagara 81 

Proctor, Gen 25:! 

Proph t (The) of Tecumseh 231 

His Indiscretion 235 

Quebec settled 8 

Taken by the English 86 

Railroad System of the N. W 494 

Of Chicago 503 

Relief and Aid Society 542 

Red Jacket, his Speech 214 

Religious Newspaper— First at Chicago... 0.87 

Reynolds, Gov. of Illinois 282 

Right of Search 241 

River Raisin, Battle of. [294 

Robinson, Alexander 273 

Reminiscences of Him 41:'. 

Rogers, Maj. Robert 99 

Takes Possession of Detroit 103 

Ronan Ensign at the Chicago Massacre... 255 

Rush Medical College 520 

Russell, Col. J. B. F 401 

Sac- and Foxes 356 

San-ga-nash (Billy Caldwell) Saves Pris- 
oners at i he Chicago Massacre 271 

Schools, Publ c 487 

Scott, Gen Winfield, ordered to Chicagj 375 

Encamps on the DesPlaines 389 

Scott, Col., his Ex edition to the Wabash 181 

Schenectady Burned 58 

Shabonee 348, 415 

Shelby.Gov., joins Harrison , 305 

Shirley, Gen..' 7:', 

Marches against Niagara 77 

Shingis 124 

Sioux, The 10 

Slaves in Illinois 129 



& t 




768 



Index. 



1>AGE. 

St. Andrews' Society 509 

St. Ange 135 

St. Anthony's Falls 31 

Starved Rock.. 41 

St. Clair, Governor of the Northwest Ter- 
ritory.... ;T78 

Invades the Indian Country 171 

Is Defeated by Little Turtle 188 

Steamboat, first on Western Waters 238 

Steam Engine, the first made 398 

Sterling, Capt., takes English Possession 

of Eort Chartres 143 

St. Ildefonso, Treaty ot 130 

Stidman's Defeat 170 

St. Lawrence River Explored u 8 

St. Joseph River 26 

St. Joseph taken by Volunteers from the 

French Settlements of Illinois 154 

Taken by the Spanish from St. Louis... 161 

Indian Council at 132 

St. Louis Settled 130 

Attacked by the English and Indians.. 162 

St. Marie, Falls of, Reached 9 

Spanish Intrigues 186 

Stobo, Maj. Robert 71, 93 

St. Vrain, Death of 381 

Surveys, Public 177 

Swearington, James S 221 

Superior Lake Reached 9 

Taylor, Capt. Zachary 279 

Tecumseh attempts to form an Indian 

Confederacy 231 

Visits Harrison at Vincennes 233 

Death of. 308 

Theological Seminary of the jNorth 

West... .' 614 

Ticonderoga blown up 92 

Times, The, of Chicago 476 

Tippecanoe, Battle of. 236 

Thames, Battle of. 307 

Thanksgiving, Proclamation of. 599 

Tonty 26, 52,54 

Tribune, The, of Chicago 470 

Treaty of 1816 at Chicago 333 

Treaty of 1833 at Chicago 399 



PAGE. 

Tunnels River 515 

Tunnels Lake 560. 564 

Union College ol Law....: 678 

Universalist Denomination 601 

Valedictory 764 

Van Braum, Jacob 71 

Vessels, First on the Lakes , 2-3 

Vigo. Francis 158 

Vincennes 54 

Settled.. 62 

Vital Statistics of Chicago 732 

Volney, his interview with Little Turtle 211 
War Declared against England by the 

United States 244 

Washington, Maj., at Braddock's Defeat 75 

Receives grant of land on the Ohio 65 

His Mission to the Ohio 67 

Water Supply of Chicago 553 

Wayne, Gen., Anthony, appointed to 
Command the Western Troops 189 

Marches against the Indians 200 

His Victory 202 

Weld, Isaac, his statement 263 

Wells, Capt. Win. Wayne 261 

His Death 267 

Western Associated Press 743 

Western Reserve Ceded 230 

Whistler, Capt. John 221 

Whistler, Maj. Wm 221 

Whistler Mrs. Wm 227 

White Cloud, the Prophet 367 

White Eyes 162 

Wilkinson's Expedition 184 

Winamac 232 

Winnebago Scare 346 

Winslow, John 75 

Winnebagoes, The 361 

Williams, Eli B 397 

Wisconsin Heights, Battle of. 386 

Wolfe, Gen 84 

Before Quebec 92 

Wolfe's Point 412, 757 

Woman's Medical College 536 

Young Men's Association 452 



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